UM System offers buyouts to some tenured faculty
The University of Missouri System is offering buyouts to some tenured faculty next year.
UM System leaders sent an email to faculty members about the buyout Friday. The offer applies to only tenured faculty who are full-time and benefit eligible, have accrued five or more years of service and are age 62 or over at the effective date of the buyout. The payout is 1.5 times annual salary with a maximum of $200,000, according to the email. The offer is available to faculty at each UM System campus.
The buyouts will take effect between July 1 and Sept. 1.
The program is “designed to recognize the contributions of eligible faculty members by providing them a valuable benefit that reflects their commitment, but it also helps schools and colleges manage in a challenging financial environment by providing budget flexibility for funding new positions and appropriate salary increases,” according to a web page about the buyouts.
The University of Missouri offered the plan to faculty members in 2014. The school said then that 261 professors qualified for the voluntary buy outs.
While UM System spokesman Chrsitian Basi did not know how many faculty members qualified across the four campuses now, he said that the program was not intended to be an early retirement plan. Faculty members that elect to take the buy out can wait to collect their pension benefits until they turn 65, when workers would typically receive the benefit.
Basi said the program could help departments re-allocate funds to student scholarships or new hires it deems important.
“Maybe hiring a different individual with a different research focus,” Basi said. “Just depending on what the target goals the college or department has.”
The UM System has moved to cut some costs and reinvest in key areas under the administration of President Mun Choi. A plan announced last year included the elimination of 307 administrative, faculty and staff positions system-wide. That plan also includes hiring new highly qualified faculty members.
Look for more on this developing story.
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