Graying of US academia stirs debate

The Boston Globe reports:

This fall, professor Roy J. Glauber regaled a dozen Harvard freshmen with tales of his youth -- as an 18-year-old undergraduate helping to develop the atomic bomb on the Manhattan Project.

That was more than 60 years ago. Since then, Glauber has raised two children as a single father, became a Nobel laureate, and in September, celebrated his 81st birthday. He has no plans to retire.

He is part of a wave of professors changing the face of academia by working into their 70s and occasionally even their 80s, particularly at the nation's top universities. A law that went into effect in 1994 banned the common university practice of requiring professors to retire at a certain age, usually 70. Improved health and longevity have also encouraged many to stay in the laboratory and the classroom.

This year, 9.2 percent of tenured professors in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences are 70 or older, compared with none in 1992. Other universities have seen jumps in the percentage of older professors, although the actual number remains small on many campuses.

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