Deadline for URI retirement initiative extended to Thursday
Christopher Barrett
Issue date: 4/29/08 Section: News
04/29/08 - For the second time, the University of Rhode Island has extended the deadline for eligible faculty and staff to claim a $20,000 retirement initiative.
As of yesterday, 36 faculty and 29 staff have accepted the offer, whose deadline is now Thursday. Faculty and staff who worked a minimum of 20 hours a week for at least 15 years and are at least 58 years old are eligible for the plan approved by the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education on March 23.
The administration originally pushed the initial retirement deadline from April 15 to April 21, giving employees more time to decide.
Vice Provost Cliff Katz said yesterday the university's Human Resources department decided to extend the deadline after receiving a barrage of requests from eligible faculty and staff to meet with a retirement counselor.
Katz declined to release a list of names of those agreeing to the buyout, saying employees have until Thursday to change their minds and some already have.
"It's a balance between public information and personal information," Katz said.
In total, 810 faculty members are eligible for the offer that the BOG has labeled a one-time incentive that comes as the university faces increasingly tight financial times.
A bill that would revise the state's budget this year and cut $3 million from the university's budget passed through the state House of Representatives on Friday. A proposal by the governor to slash $10 million from the university's budget next year appears likely to pass as the state struggles to close a nearly half-billion dollar deficit.
The university has pushed the incentive, which increases the normal retirement bonus from $7,000 to $20,000, as a way to "redeploy" the institution's resources.
However, Katz said the most recent deadline extension was not reflective of an effort to push more employees into retirement, but simply a matter of logistics.
"My understanding is it's simply getting appointments with their retirement advisers," he said.
As of yesterday, 36 faculty and 29 staff have accepted the offer, whose deadline is now Thursday. Faculty and staff who worked a minimum of 20 hours a week for at least 15 years and are at least 58 years old are eligible for the plan approved by the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education on March 23.
The administration originally pushed the initial retirement deadline from April 15 to April 21, giving employees more time to decide.
Vice Provost Cliff Katz said yesterday the university's Human Resources department decided to extend the deadline after receiving a barrage of requests from eligible faculty and staff to meet with a retirement counselor.
Katz declined to release a list of names of those agreeing to the buyout, saying employees have until Thursday to change their minds and some already have.
"It's a balance between public information and personal information," Katz said.
In total, 810 faculty members are eligible for the offer that the BOG has labeled a one-time incentive that comes as the university faces increasingly tight financial times.
A bill that would revise the state's budget this year and cut $3 million from the university's budget passed through the state House of Representatives on Friday. A proposal by the governor to slash $10 million from the university's budget next year appears likely to pass as the state struggles to close a nearly half-billion dollar deficit.
The university has pushed the incentive, which increases the normal retirement bonus from $7,000 to $20,000, as a way to "redeploy" the institution's resources.
However, Katz said the most recent deadline extension was not reflective of an effort to push more employees into retirement, but simply a matter of logistics.
"My understanding is it's simply getting appointments with their retirement advisers," he said.
