Economy impacts faculty retirement

Two years ago, UNC administrators feared that an aging faculty would force the University to replace five out of every eight professors due to a wave of retirement — a total of almost 2,000 hires.

But this academic year, driven by a sour of economy, only about half as many faculty as usual will be retiring, a drastic departure from the trend.

“There are less faculty that have retired this year, for obvious reasons,” said Ron Strauss, executive associate provost.

And while the economy has pushed back the wave of retirement, it might exacerbate the problem when a generation of professors leave UNC as the economy rebounds.

Because of the deferred retirements, UNC will not have to hire as many new faculty members this year — a blessing in a tight budget year, administrators said.

Nine faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences retired or gave notice to administrators that they would leave last year, a decrease from 20 retirees in 2005-06.

Strauss said the value of many faculty members’ retirement accounts has decreased recently, encouraging them to remain at the University.

“They had filled retirement accounts. They were feeling like they had lots of resources to retire upon and they were planning, sometimes, even early retirements,” he said. “But for some of those people, they’ve lost money in their accounts and they don’t have freedom to retire anymore.”

Karen Gil, dean of the college, said administrators anticipated a general decrease in retirements this year, although the actual numbers were lower than expected.

But within individual departments, the trend hasn’t been particularly noticeable.

William Kier, biology department chairman, said he was not aware of anyone in his department considering retirement who delayed the decision.

Gil said most professors who are retiring are those who have had extensive teaching careers at the University and have been planning to retire for a long time.

Stafford Wing, a music professor who retired last spring, worked at UNC for 40 years before leaving.

Terry Rhodes, chairwoman of the music department, said there have been no other retirements in her department.

“His is the most recent, and I don’t foresee any more on the horizon,” Rhodes said.

Gil said despite recent trends, the University will maintain its goal of retaining the best faculty members possible.

“It’s up to an individual person to decide when they want to retire,” she said. “It’s very good that we’re able to keep experienced teachers on board.”

Strauss also said the University wants to keep skilled professors in their jobs and will not encourage retirement.

“We’re not trying to move people into retirement,” he said. “When people choose to remain active in University life, obviously they don’t need to be replaced.”

Although the University has seen more delayed retirements, this trend is not specific to UNC.

“This is a reflection of the state of the economy,” Strauss said. “We like to think of ourselves as special, but in this regard we are just like everybody else.”

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.