LETTERS FROM READERS

Wave of New Hires Never Materialized

Dear Editor,

A decade or so ago, we were told by those familiar with the demographics of the professoriate that a wave of faculty retirements by the mid-1990s should open up numerous jobs for new faculty, with the sorts of effects that your article mentions (Facts & Figures, October 2001). The wave of new hires never materialized, I would guess in part because of the uncapping of retirement, as well as the fact that many retiring faculty were not replaced at some institutions.

Are the specialists going to be right this time about the wave of retirements? I suppose that sooner or later they must be; senior faculty can't keep going forever.

-Francis B. Harrold, University of Nebraska at Kearney

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