ON THE HOME FRONT: HOW DO AGHE‐MEMBER INSTITUTIONS UTILIZE THEIR GERONTOLOGY PROGRAMS FOR AGE‐RELEVANT PLANNING AND DECISION‐MAKING?

Presidents of AGHE‐affiliated colleges and universities expressed a predominantly negative assessment of their elderly faculty members in response to a national survey (Kastenbaum & Schulte, 1988). They anticipated that the abolishment of mandatory retirement (scheduled for 1994) would lead to deterioration of instructional quality and scholarly productivity as well as a negative economic impact at their own academic institutions. However, very few of the responding institutions reported having completed studies relevant to this assumption. The present study is a follow‐up survey addressed not to the presidents but to the directors of all gerontology centers in the same academic institutions. The respondents were asked if their own administration had asked their assistance in matters concerned with the status and potential of elderly faculty. This study of gerontology on the “home front” finds that gerontological expertise is rarely sought by administrators on such topics as developing a plan for continued growth of older faculty members, new ways to utilize older faculty members, or personnel policies affecting older faculty members. The range of utilization across five items was between 3.26% and 7.09% of the 172 responding programs. Gerontology programs were somewhat more likely to initiate their own activities in these areas, ranging from 8.66% to 14.17%. Within the limits of this study, it appears that an academic institution's membership in AGHE does not necessarily signify a readiness to call upon its resident gerontologists with regard to age‐related issues on campus. The pattern of data from both surveys also suggests that (a) there i^r a nationwide emphasis on encouraging older faculty to take early r irement, (b) accompanied by a prevailing assumption that older faculty perform less adequately, although (c) little effort has been made to obtain and review data on the actual performance and potential of older faculty.