The Academic Graveyard Shift: The Bubble that Didn’t Burst

By Andrew Lounder. At least a couple of decades ago, scholars began anticipating the retirement of baby boomers. It was to be a magnificent bursting of the bubble that was created when the U.S. population rapidly expanded in the years following World War II. Years went by, and we watched Dennis Hopper market Ameriprise retirement plans to boomers on TV, by greeting senior citizenship on his own rebellious terms (Mr. Easy Rider was not himself a boomer). We waited. We are still waiting. For those observing higher education faculty, we should go ahead and make ourselves comfortable. Fidelity Investments made headlines this week when it reported its findings from a recent survey on higher education faculty retirement planning, which included, “74 percent of these boomers plan to delay retirement past the age of 65, or never retire at all.” Read more...