July 13, 2009 | Michael Kirk

More than 350 Employees Take Early Retirement

More than 350 University employees took advantage of the state’s Early Retirement Incentive Program by the July 1 deadline. The retirees included 260 staff members, 73 faculty, and 24 non-union managers at the University, including the Health Center. The Storrs and regional campuses lost 63 faculty members, 51 professional staff, 85 classified support staff, and […]

More than 350 University employees took advantage of the state’s Early Retirement Incentive Program by the July 1 deadline. The retirees included 260 staff members, 73 faculty, and 24 non-union managers at the University, including the Health Center.

The Storrs and regional campuses lost 63 faculty members, 51 professional staff, 85 classified support staff, and 12 non-union managers. At the Health Center, 10 faculty members retired, along with 52 professional staff, 72 classified staffers, and 12 non-union managers.

“We’ve lost a number of outstanding faculty and staff and they will be greatly missed,” said UConn President Michael Hogan. “Nonetheless, the program worked as intended and we do wish them the very best.”

At the Storrs and regional campuses, 211 of the 1,067 eligible employees retired – nearly 20 percent of those who could take part in the program. The highest percentage of eligible employees to accept the retirement offer were classified staff members – support staff – at just over 36 percent, with 85 of the 235 staff members accepting. About 14 percent of eligible faculty members retired, along with 17 percent of eligible UCPEA employees and nearly 18 percent of non-union managers who were eligible.

At the Health Center, 146 of the 725 eligible employees accepted the retirement offer, or slightly more than 20 percent. More than 40 percent of the eligible classified staff – 72 of 179 – retired, while just under 18 percent of eligible professional employees and 25 percent of non-union managers accepted the offer. Slightly less than 5 percent of eligible Health Center faculty retired under the program.

Despite the loss of personnel, the University is working to ensure that students returning in the fall will not be affected.

“Each academic department throughout the University is now in the process of ensuring that there is appropriate teaching coverage by faculty for the upcoming fall semester,” said University Provost Peter Nicholls. “We will continue to meet our obligations to students, who will see a full array of available classes staffed by highly qualified instructors. We are planning for a normal resumption of our class schedule this fall.”