Evaluating Tenured Professors

Without mandatory retirement, colleges need new procedures

By Patricia A. Hollander

December 31, 1993, will mark the end of mandatory retirement of tenured faculty members. Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, after that date colleges and universities will be permitted to terminate tenured faculty members only for just cause. It will no longer be possible to rely on mandatory-retirement rules as a convenient solution to the problem of unsatisfactory performance by tenured professors.

Beginning January 1, 1994, colleges will be able to terminate tenured