Read Up on the Three R's

Listed here are resources related to faculty retirement, recruitment, and retention.

• Survey of Changes in Faculty Retirement Policies 2007, a survey of the American Association of University Professors, reviews the faculty retirement practices and policies at 567 higher education institutions. (See "What Drives Retirement" in this issue.)
  
  
• "The Retiree Health Care Challenge," a paper prepared by Hewitt Associates for the November 2006 TIAA-CREF Institute Symposium, "Seeking Remedies to the Retiree Health Care Challenge," provides background for further discussion regarding the issues and factors affecting plan design and funding decisions by higher education institutions.
  
  
• "Recruitment, Retention, and Retirement: Compensation and Employment Policies for Higher Education," a paper by Robert Clark, North Carolina State University professor of business management and economics, and Madeleine d'Ambrosio, TIAA-CREF Institute vice president and executive director, examines existing human resources policies and considers potential modifications that will enable institutions to recruit, retain, and retire faculty in the coming years. The analysis reviews the soaring cost of health insurance for active and retired faculty and how these plans are being amended. It also reviews the widespread adoption of phased retirement plans and the use of early retirement programs as components of HR policy.
  
  
• "Financing Retiree Health Care: A Collection of TIAA-CREF Institute Reports" brings together research on retiree health care issues conducted and sponsored by TIAA-CREF, including reports that explore the implications of retiree health expenditures for individual workers, the trends in retiree health benefits provided by colleges and universities, and the options currently available for pre-funding retiree health expenditures as well as the drawbacks of those options.
  
  
• Findings from the TIAA-CREF Institute's inaugural Retirement Confidence Survey of College and University Faculty highlights the retirement preparation and saving behaviors of college and university faculty. (See "Life Beyond Teaching" in this issue.) Paul Yakoboski, a TIAA-CREF Institute principal research fellow, authored this trends and issues report and a companion article, "Retirement Plans and Retirement Confidence in Higher Education," available from Employee Benefit Research Institute. EBRI conducted the study in conjunction with Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc., and the TIAA-CREF Institute. Throughout the report, faculty findings are compared with data for the working population of all Americans as captured in EBRI's 2005 Retirement Confidence Survey, a study conducted annually.
  
  
• Details of EBRI's most recent retirement confidence survey are highlighted in the organization's April Issue Brief: "The Retirement System in Transition: The 2007 Retirement Confidence Survey." Among the findings: Almost half of workers saving for retirement report total savings and investments (not including the value of their primary residence or any defined benefit plans) of less than $25,000. The majority of workers who have not put money aside for retirement have little in savings at all: Seven in 10 of these workers say their assets total less than $10,000.

Several on-demand webcasts are available from NACUBO in partnership with TIAA-CREF Institute.

• "Finding and Funding the Next Generation of Faculty: An Academic and Financial Partnership." Most colleges and universities can quickly address immediate or short-term faculty needs to meet student demand, but few have considered taking a systematic approach to developing a cohesive campus strategy to build up vital faculty ranks to meet future needs. Taking a proactive approach to meeting future institutional needs requires involvement and commitment from both the chief financial officer and the chief academic officer to work through numerous related issues.
  
  
• "Managing the Faculty of the Future: Retiree Health Insurance." Soaring costs of health benefits have employers grappling with what to do about the retiree health benefit plans they sponsor. A panel of experts discusses the impact of retiree health insurance on faculty retirement decisions.
  
  
• "Managing the Faculty of the Future: Phased and Early Retirement Plans." The changing academic labor market features a bulge of faculty baby boomers approaching retirement. Colleges and universities will face one set of challenges if these faculty members stay too long and another if they go all at once. A panel of experts discusses how phased and early retirement programs can create value for both the university and the individual faculty member.