Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Wright State University is offering some faculty members incentives to retire.
The offer is limited to the first 60 retirement-eligible non-bargaining unit faculty members who submit an eligible application, the university said in a campus-wide email Thursday. Applications beyond 60 will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis based on university needs and anticipated demand in college departments, the university said.
In the email, university leaders said they are “in the midst of strategically positioning itself for the future.”
“Two of the most critical initiatives vital to the university’s success are increasing student enrollment and improving student retention. Those efforts are underway. Until the university is able to realize improvements in enrollment and retention, we must continue to pursue ways to balance expenses and revenue in the context of a sustainable forward-looking plan,” the email said.
The plan is a one-time offer to “retirement-eligible non-bargaining unit faculty members, excluding special contract employees,” Wright State said.
The university said the offer is “both people-friendly and uses a best practice approach is offering a retirement program that is voluntary and creates a benefit for both the university and the employee.”
The university said its representatives met with the union representing faculty members, the AAUP-WSU, and “agreement was not reached with them to support the” retirement incentive.
