You are to be commended for the timely article "New Policies Offer Pension Choices To Academic Scientists" (The Scientist, March 5, 1990, page 25). Julia King correctly pointed out that there is the catch that some of the more flexible policies ". . . must first be adopted by the university where the professors are employed." She went on to suggest that employees can lobby for their employers to adopt the new policies.
Despite the fact that TIAA-CREF insists that contracts are with individuals, it still permits such control to be exercised by employers. There are some 350,000 individuals who hold TIAA-CREF contracts who are no longer working for academic institutions. For those individuals, their options are controlled by their former employers. Further, while TIAA-CREF informs such persons of the options that are available, no one has the responsibility of informing former employees of the options chosen by their former ...
