The University of Colorado Boulder launched a new voluntary retirement program for faculty and staff this month.
The program incentivizes faculty and staff to retire who are eligible to do so. According to from CU Boulder’s Human Resources department, the voluntary retirement program is not driven by any financial crisis on campus.
“The voluntary retirement incentive program enables eligible employees to make positive life or career changes that fit their goals and needs,” CU Boulder spokesperson Nicole Mueksch wrote in an email. “The program also supports campus Transformation and Financial Resilience efforts by enabling CU Boulder to repurpose salary savings toward campus strategic priorities that best help us deliver on our mission of education and research.”
CU Boulder’s transformation and financial focus on ways to set up the campus for long-term financial resilience as a growing number of other universities face deficits in their financial models.
“What specifically the savings will be repurposed for will be determined by the university as the full extent of those savings are realized,” Mueksch wrote. “Campus priorities include but are not limited to sustainability; diversity, equity and inclusion; teaching and learning; and the research enterprise.”
The program is open to retirement-eligible faculty and staff who meet the program criteria based on age and length of service. It provides two retirement date options on Jan. 1 and June 1 for those who apply and are approved. Applications close on Sept. 30.
Upon retirement, the incentives include nine months of base pay for faculty and staff and up to 18 weeks of pay for classified staff, who are employees that are part of the state’s personnel system.
Not all applications will be approved, according to the program’s website, and they will reviewed on an individual case-by-case basis with the strategic needs of the university in mind.
The retiring employees might not be replaced, and their jobs could be restructured or reorganized.
“The unit in which the employee is housed must present a business case that demonstrates a cost savings to the university, which could include that the role will not be backfilled or the vacancy will allow the university to reclassify the role or potentially restructure the unit to further the mission of the unit,” Mueksch wrote. “All applications will be reviewed at the unit level and senior university leadership will make eligibility and final approval determinations.”
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