damn whippersnappers!

The Globe has an interesting article today by Marcella Bombardieri about how aging faculty members might be affecting the university hiring system. The thrust of the piece is that professors who refuse to retire may be "plugging the pipeline" for young academics hoping for one of the rare plum professorial gigs, resulting in a conflict between the wisdom of elders and the fresh new ideas younger academics might bring.
But the article doesn't mention the bigger problem that leads to the Geezer Vs. Whippersnapper battle - if someone retires, the university doesn't always have the funds or the inclination to fill an open space with young blood.
The discussion board related to the article suggests that the "plugged pipeline" comes from somewhere else. One poster by the handle of "SomervilleSlug" called the issue a "red herring" because more and more tenure-track positions are being replaced by adjunct faculty.
Bombardieri herself wrote a recent piece about how "more than half the faculty at Boston University, Northeastern, Tufts, and Harvard are part-time or are not on the tenure track." If that's the case, then the problem isn't geezers defiantly clutching their desks with one hand while beating off the whippersnappers with a stick. The problem is administrations that cut costs by hiring people on the cheap (adjuncts and lecturers get paid less and, in many instances, don't get any benefits to speak of). That doesn't mean that the adjuncts and lecturers are any less intelligent than the professors, but it does mean that these teachers - many of whom teach more classes, depending on the school - don't get the perks that go with being full-time faculty.
In a city filled with universities and their associated full-time and part-time professors, the "plugged pipeline" could have a serious impact on Boston's economy. It's hard to get by on an adjunct or lecturer's salary, and Bombardieri's articles make clear that a problem is brewing in terms of academic job quality in this city. Good college teachers will leave for more affordable places, and eventually students - and the parents who foot the bill - will catch on that schools are raising the cost of education without paying the people who do the teaching.