As many baby boomers prepare to retire in the next decade, there are not enough young junior faculty members in the professoriate to replace them, according to a recent study by the American Council on Education (ACE). The ACE report, "Too Many Rungs on the Ladder? Faculty Demographics and the Future of Leadership in Higher Education," highlights demographic trends in the academy that suggest the traditional career ladder to top administrative jobs in higher education may be less appealing to 30- and 40-something academicians seeking tenured professorships. The study reports that only 3 percent of faculty members who are at age 34 or younger hold the kinds of positions that typically lead to tenured or tenure-track jobs at four-year institutions. Women age 45 or younger in permanent positions make up only 5 percent of the faculty at four-year colleges. Among the factors that contribute to the dearth of young adults at the bottom rungs of the higher education career ladder are the increased prevalence of postdoctoral appointments, students delaying graduate school in order to gain career experience, and the rising number of young female academics who take time away from their careers to care for young children, according to Dr. Jacqueline E. King, assistant vice president and director of ACE's Center for Policy Analysis and author of the study. The increased use of contingent faculty, who are usually overworked and underpaid, has also sullied the profession. To address the pending shortage of university professors, Dr. Lorenzo Morris, chair of the political science department at Howard University, recommends more outreach. "When the baby boomers retire, there is going to be a clear lack of adequate faculty. Current faculty need to have greater outreach to junior faculty and students to bring them into the profession," Morris says. "We can't do what communities of scholars used to do and what larger universities sometimes do, which is bring in a number of research fellows (without the intent of hiring them). Let them do the research, then hire them."