Chinese Historians in the United States
A new organization founded on September 5, 1987 held its first annual meeting at Columbia University on September 5–6, 1987. More than sixty Chinese students and visiting scholars from twenty American universities attended the conference. Zheng Gao, a PhD candidate from Yale University, was elected president of the organization, which intends to form a nationwide academic group of Chinese historians.
The members of the Chinese Historians in the United States (CHUS) have agreed to spread information abroad about new developments in Chinese scholarship in order to bridge the gap between China and the outside world. According to the bylaws of CHUS, “the purpose of the Chinese Historians in the United States, Inc. is to promote scholarly exchange among its members as well as among colleagues both in China and in the United States and contribute to the advancement of historical studies in China.” The organization has already begun to publish Historian, the bulletin of CHUS and is in the process of editing two books written by members. Membership is open to Chinese students and scholars studying history and anthropology in the United States. For more information about CHUS, contact Qiang Zhai, Department of History, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701.
Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professorship of American History
George M. Fredrickson, Edgar E. Robinson Professor of United States History at Stan ford University, has been elected to the professorship for the academic year 1988-89. He is currently on the Professional Division of the AHA and served on the Beveridge and Dunning Prize Committee, 1980–82. The Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth appointment follows the withdrawal for family reasons of Professor David M. Kennedy, also of Stanford. Professor Fredrickson is a historian of racial influences in American society. His published works include The Inner Civil War, The Black Image in the White Mind, and White Supremacy, a work that develops a comparison with racial domination in South Africa.
Mandatory Retirement to End in 1994
The expected end of mandatory retirement in the 1990s is unlikely to cause an overabundance of professors in academe according to a recent report. In fact, higher education should be concerned about future faculty shortages, especially in the traditional disciplines of the humanities, life sciences, and engineering. A recent study by G. Gregory Lozier and Michael J. Dooris of Penn State found that changing the mandatory retirement age in the past has not significantly affected faculty members’ retirement patterns. The issue is not old faculty members hanging on, “but replacing today’s faculty with an equally qualified and committed professoriate in the coming decade.”
Many institutions are concentrating more on encouraging older faculty members to retire than on developing and promoting new qualified faculty. According to the study, “some observers have expressed fears that without a mandatory retirement age, colleges and universities will be left with a surplus of elderly scholars who are no longer productive and a shortage of opportunities for new scholars.” However, experience thus far suggests that the average age at which faculty members retire is not significantly influenced by the mandatory retirement age. A policy change in 1982 allowed faculty to teach until age seventy. The majority did not take advantage of this and left teaching at sixty-six years of age, apparently making their decisions based on early-retirement incentive plans and other factors.
But retirement policies are not the only factors in this potential shortage. The rapid growth of higher education in the 1950s and 1960s provided employment for many young scholars, but there were few openings for the generation that followed as enrollments leveled off in the 1970s. Many of those who were hired during the growth period will soon retire thus creating a number of faculty vacancies, but the pool of candidates for those positions is relatively small. The academic profession simply has not been attractive to students in recent years, and it may be difficult to find qualified replacements for any openings.
Colleges and universities will encounter problems with some faculty members staying on beyond age seventy, however the real problem lies with the task of hiring thousands of new qualified faculty members when there is a shortage of people attracted to the profession.
New Intelligence Assessment and Policy Program
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University has announced that the Central Intelligence Agency has provided a $400,000 grant for a three-year pro gram of research and training on intelligence assessment and policy. “The work is consistent with university policy and the principles of academic freedom,” the school wrote in a statement, “and all research products and case studies will be freely available for use at Harvard and elsewhere.”
The program will be directed by AHA member Ernest R. May, the Charles Warren Professor of History at Harvard. Professor Richard E. Neustadt, Dr. Gregory F. Treverton, and Associate Dean Peter Zimmerman will also participate.
