This analysis of retirement planning and early retirement incentive plans in Illinois community colleges was drawn from a study of early retirement plans at each of the state's 39 community colleges, and a follow-up survey to clarify information in the documents and determine colleges' plans for the future. After introductory comments on the issue of the "aging professoriate" and the information sources for the analysis, chapter 1 provides a general discussion of retirement trends and attitudes nationally, including a review of research on employee attitudes toward retirement. Chapter 2 explores retirement in academe, summarizing several studies related to faculty attitudes toward retirement. Chapter 3 explores the history of the early retirement concept, the growth of early retirement programs in academia, the advantages and disadvantages of such programs, and attitudes toward early retirement. Chapter 4 considers various approaches to helping people plan for retirement, providing examples of pre-retirement programs. Financial aspects of early retirement are explored in chapter 5, which highlights early retirement incentive options and potential benefits of early retirement. Finally, chapter 6 examines early retirement in Illinois community colleges. This chapter describes the current retirement programs of Illinois community colleges, summarizes a study conducted by Illinois State University designed to determine the effectiveness of early retirement programs, and offers recommendations related to community college retirement programs. Appendices present survey responses to open-ended questions concerning community college retirement plans in Illinois, and survey instruments. (LAL)