An assistant to the chancellor who has worked at Kansas University for more than 40 years will enter phased retirement during the next school year.

Jeff Weinberg, who moved from KU’s financial aid office to become an associate vice chancellor of student affairs, was hired by then-Chancellor Robert Hemenway to serve as one of his assistants shortly after Hemenway’s arrival in 1996.

He has worked in the chancellor’s office under Hemenway and for Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little.

“I think phased retirement offers a wonderful opportunity for us to continue to make a contribution to the university and to engage in other interests we might have,” Weinberg said.

Phased retirement is a program under which faculty and staff can continue to receive full benefits — including a contribution to their retirement program at their full salary — while working at a reduced rate. Weinberg will take two years of phased retirement.

Next academic year, he will work half-time in the chancellor’s office, and then in the 2012-13 year, he will work half-time in the KU Honors Program, where he will be doing some teaching and advising.

He said he intended to continue to work with the variety of community organizations with which he is involved.

“Jeff is the kind of guy who can put the finesse on a project and put the spit and shine on a program,” said David Ambler, a retired vice chancellor for student affairs who hired Weinberg to work in his office.

Weinberg said he will pursue other interests, like painting and writing, during the time when he won’t be working at KU.

“I’ll miss the full-time rigor, but it’ll be replaced for me with something that’s very exciting,” he said.

He said he did not know what would happen to his position in the chancellor’s office in the long term, but some of his duties would be absorbed by Tim Caboni, the incoming vice chancellor for public affairs.