EARLY RETIREMENT PROGRAM MAY BE SCALED BACK

Budget woes may force Southeast Missouri State University officials to scale back the university's early retirement program, Provost Leslie Cochran said Wednesday.

At Wednesday's Faculty Senate meeting, Cochran said nine faculty members have applied for early retirement, which would cost the university an estimated $500,000.

The early retirement program has been in effect for five or six years, he said. Under the program, university employees who are 55 to 62 years of age and have been employed at Southeast for at least 15 years can elect to retire early.

Cochran said the university benefits from the turnover in staff and ultimately realizes a financial savings in hiring new personnel at a lower cost.

"There are a lot of academic and budgetary reasons to deal with this," he said. "What we are dealing with is one-time costs, but it saves the next year."

In the past, three or four faculty members on average have sought early retirement in any one year.

The increased number this year may reflect the bleak state funding picture, Cochran said. "Probably some of this is the economic condition of the state."

Cochran said the $500,000 needed to fund the early retirement is not in the university's budget for next fiscal year and comes at a time when the university may have to cut $1 million to $1.5 million out of the 1993 fiscal year budget or find some way to generate the needed revenue, assuming there is no increase in state funding.

"I think that would be a reasonable expectation," he said.

"Right now, when you are building a budget at this stage, you have to build a very conservative budget," Cochran told faculty members.

One way to pay for the early retirement would be to freeze nine faculty positions, leaving those positions open, he said.

But with the state funding situation, Cochran said university officials will be looking for financial savings throughout campus operations.

As a result, he said, university officials may have to limit the retirement program either by cost or number of participants, or even eliminate the program entirely.

"I think it is vulnerable," said Cochran.

The university is already operating under a hiring freeze. "Some positions have been frozen all year," said Cochran.

Before any position is filled now, he said, it is subject to review by Southeast's administrators, including President Kala Stroup.

"We're seriously reviewing all programs at the university," said Cochran, adding that this includes the early retirement program. "All programs have to come under special scrutiny."

In other business, Cochran told the senators that university officials are reviewing the senate's revised faculty merit pay plan, but have yet to sign off on it.

Cochran said, however, that he expects merit pay will be a funding priority.