Although the university has publicly attempted to assauge concerned professors, George Luste, the president of the University of Toronto Faculty Association has expressed his concerns over what he calls the “inconvenient truths” of the school’s pension plan, in his Information Report.
“Thinking about your pension plans probably ranks right up there with thinking about your next visit to the dentist for a root canal,” Luste comments in the latest edition of the UTFA newsletter. “For the year ending June 30, 2008, our pensions plan investments lost about $177 million […] At present, as U of T pension plan members, we have virtually no say in the governance of our pension plan.”
In a time of economic turmoil, professors are reconsidering when they should retire. Until recently, the “ultimate nerd-dream” came to an abrupt end with a mandatory retirement that forced scholars to bow out of university service at age 65. The University of Toronto abolished this clause in June 2006 in response to Ontario legislation as well as changing attitudes towards ageism.
The trend has been evident across Canada. Most major universities have eliminated mandatory retirement—to mixed results. There is a small contingency of professors taking early retirement, but one-third of professors in Canada currently take their retirements at a later age.
If faculty maintain their status in their current universities, do they inevitably stunt the progress and dynamic thinking that defines academia? One professor of economics at the University of British Columbia finds the problem to be moot, instead citing a change in demographics that works to the short-term advantage of long-standing faculty members. In his opinion, there is an ongoing surge of available professors, as the echo boom have yet to complete their education.
In his fifties, the professor plans to retire at 65 to pursue his interests in writing and continued analysis.
Mark Kingwell’s comments about taking time off over the winter break seem to sum up the mindset of most professors. “I don’t know what I’ll do without you guys,” he jokingly commented to his Introduction to Philosophy class, “I’ll probably wander the streets from 12 to 1 p.m. every week, like a crazed man, begging people to listen to me talk about philosophy.”
