The Harvard Crimson has news of recently unveiled retirement packages for faculty who agree to retire. Of much interest to me is the report that 24% of Harvard faculty in arts and sciences are 65 or older; the average age of tenured faculty in arts and sciences is 56.
The article also reports that the FAS Dean, Michael D. Smith, has previously announced plans to shrink the arts and sciences faculty by attrition. I hadn't heard this sobering news. The article continues, "If any of the 127 faculty members who were offered the package chose to
accept it, the plan would open up positions that would only be filled
again on a case-by-case basis."
This seems way under resourced to induce new retirements..most universities (and I am betting Harvard as well) already gives such deals routinely