photo by: University of Kansas

The skyline of the University of Kansas is pictured.

As part of a budget-balancing measure, the University of Kansas has launched a program to encourage certain, longtime, tenured faculty members to retire early.

University employees on Friday received a notice announcing a “voluntary separation incentive program,” that is targeted towards tenured faculty members.

Under the program, faculty members who have attained tenure status, are at least 62 years old and have worked for at least 10 years for KU or a state agency may be eligible for a one-time, lump sump payment equal to a full year of their state salary, if they agree to retire in May 2026.

Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer said in the Friday announcement that the program was in response to budget challenges that university leaders have been communicating for the past several months.

“To maintain KU’s academic excellence and student experience through this period of structural financial constraint, we are aligning university operations with long-term sustainability goals,” Bichelmeyer said in the note to colleagues.

Bichelmeyer said KU is launching the program “in agreement with UAKU,” which is the new faculty union that is in the process of negotiation a contract with KU.

Faculty members interested in taking the early retirement buyout must decide whether to apply for the program by Dec. 1. KU did not announce a target number of retirements that administrators hope to achieve with the program. Rather, Bichelmeyer’s message said KU’s intent is to “allow as many eligible faculty as possible to participate.” However, each early retirement application will be individually reviewed and approved or denied based on the “best interests of the university community.”

The guidelines of the program place an emphasis on reducing positions that are largely funded by state dollars or tuition dollars. Positions that are funded entirely through grants are ineligible for the program. Employees who also have already announced a pending retirement are ineligible for the program.

In August, as the Journal-World reported, KU announced it needs to find $32 million in annual budget savings by July 1, which is when KU’s new fiscal year begins. Despite two years of record enrollments, KU leaders have been worried about funding threats on multiple fronts. State lawmakers may tightening state funding for higher education as Kansas’ budget picture has become more constrained. KU, along with many research universities across the country, is worried about significant losses of federal grant funding.

Additionally, universities across the country are bracing for what higher education leaders dub the “demographic cliff.” That refers to the fact that high schools will be producing fewer graduates over the next decade. Those lower high school graduate numbers are due to lower birth rates that began showing up in the aftermaths of the 2008 Great Recession. Next year marks the 18th year since that recession, and thus is the first that those lower birth rates will broadly result in fewer college-age students.

However, KU in its August budget message to employees didn’t mention an early retirement program that targets tenure faculty members. Efforts to reduce faculty numbers goes against a years-long trend. On the Lawrence and Edwards campuses, the number of faculty members has increased about 15% — or about 210 positions — since 2019. That’s despite total employment numbers for KU’s Lawrence/Edwards campus declining by a little less than 1% during the same time period.

KU also has grown faculty positions at a rate greater than enrollment has grown, figures from the university show. Since 2019, enrollment on the Lawrence/Edwards campus is up about 10% compared to about a 15% growth in faculty numbers during the same period.

The fact the early retirement program targets tenured faculty members is significant. While tenured faculty members generally are the segment of the faculty closest to retirement age, they also are the segment that is most difficult to simply lay off during economic downturns.

Tenure status generally requires the university make a series of findings and go through specific steps before a tenured faculty member can be dismissed. The Kansas Board of Regents during and shortly after the pandemic opened a temporary window for universities to dismiss tenured faculty members without going through those processes. However, only Emporia State University used the process, and it was met with stiff opposition and is the subject of a federal lawsuit.

In its message Friday, KU did not state what its next steps would be to achieve cost savings if the early retirement program produces few results. Rather, Bichelmeyer urged faculty members to give the offer thoughtful consideration.

“Change of this nature is never easy, and I want to extend my sincere appreciation to every faculty member in our community for your resilience and dedication to KU’s mission,” said Bichelmeyer, who earlier this semester announced she intends to step down as provost and return to the KU faculty later this school year. “This is an important decision, and I encourage eligible faculty to consider their situation carefully.”