Gray Panthers Strike Back

Say you're a young Ph. D., fresh out of graduate school and looking for work in a comfortable university setting. Or perhaps you're a 63-year-old tenured professor of Obscure Studies. What do the two species have in common? Plenty.

This week both young and old academics found themselves tied together by a compromise version of the controversial Age Discrimination Bill that cleared a House-Senate conference committee Thursday.

The bill includes a provision that would raise the age at which tenured faculty can be forced to retire from 65 to 70. The proposed legislation, which congressional aides predict will pass both houses of Congress within a month, may well tighten the already glutted market for jobs in academia even further.

Edward L. Keenan '57, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said Thursday the bill would place added strain on the University's budget by forcing it to keep tenured faculty on at full salary for as much as four years past the current retirement age of 66.

Many Harvard faculty members generally teach a half-load of courses after they reach age 66, continuing to work for half-pay until age 70.

The new bill may not make an impact for several years, but many University administrators worry that the entire tenure system may be called into question if Congress--as now seems possible--completely abolishes mandatory retirement.