“We’re kind of in an unusual situation,” Hernquist says. “In a sense, it’s a good thing there’s no retirement age…but I can imagine there are other departments where this would be an issue.”

But some professors say age is more valued in astronomy than in other scientific disciplines.

“In the sciences, the assumption is that young people are the most effective workers,” Kirshner says. “Math and theoretical physics are examples where that’s the legend, if not an established fact. In observational astronomy, that is demonstrably not true—there was a reasonably good longitudinal study of astronomers that showed their publication records, anyway, did not decline with age up to about 70.”

Kirshner adds that not all fields are the same in this respect.

“But in a fast-changing field, it’s hard to argue that accumulated knowledge outweighs dexterity with the latest tools,” he says.

Cracking Down

Even before the 1986 law went into effect, the University took proactive measures to address the predicted effects of the law.

In 1992, then-Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles established a committee under former Provost Jerry R. Green to “address the consequences for the Faculty of the federal law eliminating mandatory retirement.”

Some of the recommendations that came out of that committee included a commitment to post-retirement health plans, graduated retirement and increased perks of emeritus status. The committee investigated early retirement incentive plans, which were already in effect at other institutions, but concluded that the legal and financial effects of these plans were not beneficial to the University.

At the time, Knowles asked the University Retirement Benefits Office to offer seminars to professors on retirement planning.

To this day, the productivity of all professors is closely monitored.

Faculty members are required to submit a summary of their activities, from advising and teaching to research and writing.

“The same evaluation standards are used for people regardless of age,” Kirby says. “I don’t, can’t, shouldn’t have different procedures for different ages.”

One mechanism put into place to help ensure the circulation of professors is the so-called “mortgage system”: a department can hire replacement professors before the senior faculty member retires, creating a temporary “bulge” in the number of faculty members allocated to the department,

But when individual initiative does not suffice, and professors’ resources fail them, it is often the role of chairs, deans and the administration to take a more proactive role in encouraging retirement.