With oldest faculty in its history, Cornell U. plans to hire large numbers of tenure-track professors
The Cornell Daily Sun
September 3, 2010
With an unusually large number of University faculty members expected to retire soon — this year’s faculty is the oldest in Cornell’s 145-year history — University administrators are looking to hire large numbers of new tenure-track professors over the next several years.
This expected round of hiring will constitute the first major addition of professors since the late 1960s and early 1970s, according to Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Peter LePage. Since approximately 20 percent of Arts and Sciences professors are over 65, the new faculty will replace the retiring faculty born of the baby boom generation.
In the early 1980’s, around 20% of Cornell’s faculty was over 55; today, 47% of Cornell professors are over 55.
After shrinking the size of its professorial staff due to the budget cuts of the last few years, the College of Arts and Sciences “need[s] to get back to [hiring] 26-7 [professors a year] immediately just to replace the people leaving,” LePage said.
