The NY Times is reporting that the '60s are "fading as liberal profs retire." The article examines the impending departure of large numbers of faculty members hired in the late '60s and early '70s and their replacement with a younger and apparently ideologically different set of new professors.  I'll leave the ideological debate to our very capable sibling blog, but seriously, how many times have we heard the narrative about a "vast generational change" in higher education?

Baby boomers, hired in large numbers during a huge expansion in higher education that continued into the ’70s, are being replaced by younger professors [snip]. 

The author does note that some changes in the make-up of the faculty have changed what "the faculty" is due to "market pressures," but the general premise still seems to be that "the faculty" hired in the '70s is being replaced by "the faculty" of today--and boy are they different!  Just look at these two people we profiled. This, of course, is more journalistic device than real analysis that, as Mark from Kyoto points out, misses the real transformation shaping the faculty--a transformation that, from my perspective, is more of a slow boil than a rapid turnover and ideological shift. Over the jump for Mark's insight.

Interesting enough. But one thing goes for the most part undiscussed in this article (and inadequately registered in its accompanying graphics): It is possible to speak of an "aging" faculty (especially in the humanities) only if by "faculty" we mean "full-time tenured or tenurable faculty." If by faculty we mean instead "the men and women who actually run classrooms" the case is altogether different: the "faculty" in this latter sense is by no means "aging" or "graying," nor is it "moderating" in politics (so far as I can tell). A few people interviewed, here, hint at this (e.g., by speaking of the way "market forces" are changing American academia). But Ms. Cohen might have addressed the matter more directly. I suspect that any changes in sensibility, tone, or posture among college/university teachers--insofar as these changes are measurable--is due as much to the gradual phasing out of the tenure system in favor of contingent labor as it is to retirement of professors who came of age in the 1960s & 1970s. It isn't that "liberal professors" are "retiring." The salient point is that tenure itself is being retired--with the result that, in many cases, the men and women who actually run our classrooms are not even listed in traditional "faculty" directories. There are plenty of activist-teachers on campus (for the most part left-leaning). You just don't find them available for interview in offices, because as often as not they have none. Just keep an eye peeled, as you walk around the university, for men and women pulling carry-on luggage of the sort you see in airports. I started noticing this about ten years ago when I worked at a university in Michigan: Education on the fly; education with low (or no) overhead; open-air (or coffee-shop) office hours; and students who have no idea what a "faculty" is. (empahsis added) 

The NYT Editors recognized that Mark has a point and highlighted it as an Editor's Choice in the comment section - you might pop on over and recommend this comment as well to help highlight it.