Pitt offers voluntary early retirement to some employees

Citing shrinking state subsidies, the University of Pittsburgh has joined Penn State and Temple universities in offering employees voluntary early retirement.

The schools pointed to a need to cut costs after reductions of about 20 percent in state subsidies this year and Gov. Tom Corbett's proposal to slash an additional 30 percent next year.

Pitt officials outlined the school's proposal to offer early retirement to some nonunion employees in an email last week.

Last month, 71 of 260 eligible faculty members opted to take advantage of an early retirement program at Temple University in Philadelphia. Penn State eliminated 130 positions in the College of Agricultural Sciences after an early retirement program last year. Penn State also offered early retirement at the law school, where the university reduced the size of the incoming class from 245 to 180 last fall.

A spokesman for Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Secretary Ron Tomalis praised the universities.

"We applaud them for taking these steps to look internally and reduce costs. Hopefully, they will serve as models for other institutions across the state," said Tomalis spokesman Tim Eller.

Pitt officials notified university deans and department chairs of the school's program in an email last week. Eligible employees will be notified in the near future, according to the email.

In the email, Ronald W. Frisch, an administrator in the executive vice chancellor's office, wrote that employees eligible for the voluntary early retirement program include full-time and part-time "classified staff" who have at least 10 years of continuous employment at Pitt, are 59 years old as of April 1, 2012, and opt to retire by June 30, 2012.

"Further enhancements that will be a part of this program include continuation or availability of health insurance, life insurance, tuition programs and a transitional payment equal to six months of the candidate's base salary," the email stated.

The early retirement program is the second move this month that Pitt attributed to reductions in state subsidies. Officials cited the same budgetary pressures when they announced the suspension of admissions to the university's graduate programs in German, religious studies and the classics.