In line with Harvard's "every tub on its own bottom" tradition, each of Harvard's graduate schools has chosen a different course to float through retirement challenges. The measurable effect of the new retirement law varies by school, but one thing remains constant: No plans are in place to change retirement policy anytime soon anywhere in the University.

School of Business Administration

Since 1994, the Harvard Business School (HBS) has led the faculties with the most aggressive retirement incentive plan. It built and emeritus center with offices, mailboxes and secretarial staff. It set aside emeritus research funds, and it instituted a financial incentive plan.

HBS professors who retire between ages 63 and 65 receive a bonus equal to twice their annual salaries at retirement. The bonus diminishes as the age of retirement increases.

"Business changes very rapidly. If you're going to stay current, you simply have to be out there in the field mastering new topics," says Robert H. Hayes, senior associate dean for faculty development. "We had to bring in people.

Law School

The change in mandatory retirement came at the right time for Harvard Law School, which is looking to expand its faculty. Currently, two faculty over 70 are still teaching full-time, and five others teach as emeriti. Emeriti professors individually negotiate their teaching load and pay with the dean of the Law School

"We are glad to have these people teaching--we don't view them as a burden," says Allan Ray, director of academic affairs.

But pay isn't always proportional to teaching work, according to emeriti professors who are still active. And because there's no published pay scale for emeriti, professors who wish to teach after they turn 70 are given a choice between carrying a full load with administrative duties or "being at the University's mercy, so to speak," says one of the last professors to take emeritus status under the old law.

Medical School

Among the 517 full professors who teach at Harvard Medical School (HMS), 39--or more than seven percent--are over 70 years old. Deans at the school refused repeated requests for an interview, but in a statement issued by the office of public affairs, the school claimed that "there is not a rigid number of full professors, so we do not need to rely on retirements to rejuvenate the faculty."

School of Dental Medicine

At the Dental School, 70 faculty members work full-time. Of the 27 of those who teach full-time, five, or 18 percent, are over age 70.

As with HLS, having an older core of teaching faculty can sometimes work to a school's advantage.

"There aren't that many young doctors that want to take on a full-time teaching load," said Joseph L. Henry, associate dean for faculty affairs.