7.0 General Employment Policies
7.7 Retirement of Faculty and Staff Members
There is no mandatory retirement age. While the law prohibits a private employer from requiring a person's retirement because of age, it is essential to the continued excellence of MIT that new faculty and staff appointments be made to bring new ideas, new disciplines, and new initiatives to our academic program and its administrative support. To that end, the Institute encourages faculty and staff to consider carefully the varied options for retirement and to discuss them with their department head, in relation to their own goals and the needs of the department. Age 55 with 10 years of benefits-eligible employment is the earliest one may choose to retire.
A tenured faculty member relinquishes tenure upon retirement. Should a faculty member be reappointed after retirement, the appointment to the academic staff shall be made at the same rank held by the faculty member prior to retirement from MIT, although without tenure [see Section 2.3.1 Professor Without Tenure (Retired)].
As a pre-retirement option, during the five years prior to the normal retirement age (currently 65), a faculty member may negotiate with his or her department head a mutually acceptable part-time appointment of 50 percent or less. A faculty member who chooses this option and holds a 50-percent time appointment retains all rights during this period, including his or her chair and benefits status. A faculty member who holds less than a 50-percent time appointment will be eligible for benefits as a retired professor, but retains all other rights as an active faculty member. Under this option, a faculty member's tenure appointment is converted into a term appointment that ends after five years or at the normal retirement age plus three years, whichever comes first. At that point the faculty member becomes a professor emeritus and is eligible for a term as a professor without tenure (retired) as outlined in Section 2.3.1.
