Faculty attrition, or the turnover of professors, has a hand in creating a number of concerns among students, faculty and administrators. Determining whether the University has a high faculty attrition rate can be a tricky calculation.
Attrition can come in two forms, planned and unplanned.
Unplanned turnover includes resignations and deaths. The University calculated an unplanned turnover of 50 faculty members from 1994-1999. The University chapter of the American Association of University Professors cites 57 unplanned losses during the same time period in its 1999 faculty attrition survey. These calculations do not take planned turnover into consideration. The University classifies sabbatical replacements, retirements and positions that are rotational in nature as planned turnover.