SJSU is one of nine colleges and universities nationwide selected for the ACE-Sloan pilot project on faculty retirement transitions. The project will explore “win-win scenarios” in support of faculty retirement transitions.
“The American Council on Education has been partnering with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to assist universities in recruiting and retaining highly talented and diverse faculty members,” said Claire Van Ummersen, Director of the ACE-Sloan Projects for Faculty Career Flexibility. “Specifically, ACE has been investigating the structural and cultural changes necessary to align academic careers with the needs of current and future faculty members. ACE examined early and mid-career supports and is now focusing attention on the latter stages of faculty careers.”
Through site visits and data analysis, ACE will explore best practices in creating win-win scenarios that effectively support latter career faculty and their transition into retirement, while meeting institutional needs. ACE hopes to identify: the cultural and structural constraints that institutions face when managing tenured faculty compositions without mandatory retirement; what faculty from different institutional types expect, want, and need during the transition into retirement; and, the most efficient and cost effective strategies through which institutions meet their own needs while meeting faculty needs during the transition into retirement.
In return, SJSU will receive expert consulting on faculty personnel policies and best practices in institutional cultural change, as well as the findings from our own campus data.
This is the second time in two years SJSU has been selected to participate in an ACE career flexibility project. #