Voluntary Separation Program Passed

At last night's Board of Trustees meeting, the Voluntary Early Separation plan was approved. This plan provides two ways for tenured faculty over 55 with 15 years of experience to retire early and receive a payment and subsidized health insurance.

All eligible faculty will receive an email on Friday. The entire faculty will receive a slightly different announcement on Monday, in case anybody was excluded from Friday's announcement. Any tenured faculty members who submitted retirement letters for this year but otherwise would have been eligible will be allowed to participate.

Nearly 80 faculty members are eligible, and the administration expects about 1/3 of them to participate, based on participation rates in previous plans. I believe that the participation rate will be closer to 50 percent, based on faculty interest.

It will be sad to lose so many colleagues, but it will be nice for so many to receive options about the next part of their lives.

This plan is good news for faculty who feel ready to retire. It will help save some money and give faculty options on how to move to the next stage of their lives.