Trustees: Report on Early Retirement Incentive

BOARD RECEIVES UPDATE ON EARLY RETIREMENT INCENTIVE

     COLUMBUS -- Edward J. Ray, senior vice provost, reported to
The Ohio State University Board of Trustees Friday (12/5) about
the Early Retirement Incentive program for faculty, which was
instituted in 1995.  The program was offered for three reasons:
to help colleges meet budget reduction mandates, to match faculty
staffing with student instructional demands, and to afford
colleges the opportunity to redirect resources into new academic
areas.

Here are highlights to date:

  Ohio State expects annual rate savings of $7.8 million, a
  positive cash result of at least $18 million, and perhaps as
  high as $25 million, and a faculty downsizing of 1.6 percent.

  Delayed hiring -- of only 71 faculty compared with an original
  estimate of 127 expected hires -- has helped free $23.24
  million in net cash for reinvestment into new academic areas.

  In order to maintain the quality, integrity and variety of
  course offerings, 86 of the 258 faculty who retired from the
  Columbus campus were rehired on a part-time basis to teach
  courses.  The rehired teachers have an average compensation
  rate of $5,363, compared with a pre-retirement average rate of
  $14,300 per course.  Stated differently, 28 percent of
  retirees on the Columbus campus were hired to teach key
  courses at a compensation rate equal to about 38 percent of
  their pre-retirement salary.

  The reduction in rehires at the Columbus campus from 73 in
  1995 to 64 in 1996 and 49 in 1997 is expected to continue as
  permanent hiring activity proceeds.

  New faculty hires are more diverse than the retirees: 46 men
  and 10.5 women faculty retirees have been replaced on the
  Columbus campus with 40.5 men and 16 women who, in turn, are
  more diverse than the men and women faculty they replaced.

  The immediate impact of the ERI was to raise the
  student/faculty ratio from 18.76 to a high of 20.26.  The
  ratio declined to 19.68 this year and, assuming no further
  decline in student enrollment, the rate should fall to 18.51
  at the conclusion of the ERI program.

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Contact:  Edward Ray, Academic Affairs, (614) 292-5881


[Submitted by: Von Vargas  (vargas.12@osu.edu)
               
Fri, 5 Dec 1997 15:15:03 -0500 (EST)]
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