Universities trying to plan for massive faculty retirements

RENO -- The University of Nevada, Reno and other higher education institutions across the country foresee an exodus of baby boom-era professors nearing retirement.

When they do retire, educators and researchers say, universities will be competing for fewer qualified employees to replace them.

At UNR, a report is being compiled on "the graying of the faculty," said Grant Stitt, chairman of a Faculty Senate committee looking into the phenomenon.

Stitt said 31 percent of UNR's faculty is 55 years of age or older. In the Criminal Justice Department, about half of the professors are 60 or older, and in one UNR department that Stitt declined to identify, every member of the faculty is 60 or older.

Exactly how many UNR professors are planning to retire in the next few years is not known.

"That's part of the problem," Stitt said. "You cannot ask people when they are going to retire. That's just nuts. How can you be involved in trying to plan for the future if you can't ask for that kind of information?"

At one time, it was required that staff members retire at 65, but Stitt said that's no longer the case.

Stitt said he thinks the impending problem of how to replace aging professors is being overshadowed by the more pressing issue of budget cuts at campuses across the country.

"At the same time, this gigantic elephant of a problem is looming in the future," Stitt said. "What's probably happening is many faculty who would retire have put it off because of the economy."

That means the bubble will grow bigger, Stitt said, and when it does burst, it will be worse.