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The merit in emeritus
Aging gracefully in the academy

Academic Exchange December 1999/January 2000 Contents Page

I'm convinced we're on the verge of a major transition, if not transformation,
in the academic profession. And we're going through it if for no other reason than a basic changing of the guard in the academy. If you look at the age profile of most faculty, you will see a predominant group of people who were hired in the sixties; they are now fifty-five to sixty-five. And yet now, we're beginning to make appointments at the earlier career stage, so what we have in most faculties is an empty middle. In fact, I would argue that we're going to have a leadership problem in the next few years. Where will we get our leaders as the people who have really shaped our institutions in the sixties begin to move into later-life careers? We need to pay attention to that, because this whole change will fundamentally shape what takes place in higher education over the next thirty years.

--Eugene Rice, Director of the Forum on Faculty Roles and Responsibilities,
The American Association of Higher Education, speaking on campus last November