Out With the Old, In With the New

According to an article in the The Providence Journal, administrators at the University of Rhode Island hope that upping an early-retirement bonus from $7,000 to $20,000 will save the institution money by enticing some high-paid professors to step down early. The reporter, Jennifer D. Jordan, writes:

URI President Robert L. Carothers asked the Board of Governors for Higher Education to support the one-time offer, which extends to roughly one-third of URI’s 655 full-time faculty who are over age 58 and have worked at the university for 15 years or more. Staff who meet the same age and length of service requirements are also eligible. The university does not have a mandatory retirement age. About 235 professors are age 59 or older; of those, 107 are 65 or older.

University officials said that about 25 professors and staff who retired last year received the $7,000 bonus. They estimate that twice that many may take advantage of the larger bonus this spring. Eligible faculty and staff have until mid-April to decide. …

“We talked to people and found the $7,000 wasn’t enough,” Carothers told the board. “We didn’t want to go up to a 40-percent payment, since that would be about $40,000. So we decided on the $20,000 figure.”

At an average $100,000 salary plus $40,000 a year in benefits for veteran faculty, URI would save about $120,000 next year for every professor who retires early, said the university’s new provost, Donald H. DeHayes. If 50 professors were to retire early, URI would save $6 million, less what it would spend to replace the veteran faculty with lecturers or new professors. New faculty earn $50,000 to $70,000 a year, depending on their discipline, plus benefits. Part-time lecturers earn $3,200 per course, no benefits, and are limited to two courses per semester.