Content area
Full text
One of the biggest challenges facing higher education over the next twenty years is the aging academic workforce. A survey of 32,840 faculty members at 358 two- and four-year colleges by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, as reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, documented this well-known phenomenon. "In 2001, 35 percent of all full-time faculty members were 55 or older compared with 32 percent in 1998 and 25 percent in 1989" (Wilson, 2002).
The effects of this trend are widespread, including higher health care costs, a smaller proportion of untenured faculty in departments, and less job changing by academics. Of profound concern is the decline in scholarly productivity that often accompanies aging. Having reached the peaks of the careers, many academics find little incentive to stay active in their professions outside the classroom.
The Organizational Systems Research Association (OSRA) has suffered from this trend. Our annual research meeting has seen declines both in the number of papers submitted and in attendance over the past few years. Active members have retired, and many...