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July 06, 2009, 11:01 AM ET
Connecticut Public Colleges Lose 200 Professors to Early Retirement
Connecticut’s public colleges and universities lost more than 200 professors last week as thousands of state workers took advantage of an early-retirement incentive, the Hartford Courant reported, and administrators now are scrambling to plug the holes in their course schedules for the fall. Complicating their task, the state still has not set its budget for the new fiscal year.
The state’s 12 community colleges, which lost more than 70 faculty members, are concerned that they may have to cap enrollments, just as record numbers of potential new students are turning to them for training.
The University of Connecticut also lost more than 70 professors, through the retirement program. Jeremy Teitelbaum, dean of its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, told the newspaper that while each department was making its own plans, most would probably meet course demand this fall by employing more adjunct professors and increasing some class sizes.
The four-campus Connecticut State University System lost more than 75 faculty members. The system hopes to maintain academic quality, a spokesman, Bernard Kavaler, said, by “doing more with less.”
Over all, the early retirements are expected to save the state at least $110-million a year as it struggles to close a projected $8.7-billion budget gap over the next two years.
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