Officials- 718 University of Missouri workers accept early reti

More than 700 workers in the University of Missouri system have signed up for a special retirement offer meant to save millions of dollars and avoid layoffs, officials say.

The 718 employees -- 36 percent of all those eligible -- still may revoke their decisions if the final calculations of their retirement benefits don't closely match preliminary ones. It's also still too early to tell whether the retirements will be enough to avoid layoffs.

The four-campus University of Missouri system, which released the numbers Friday, made the early retirement offer in June. It hoped to eliminate the jobs of 400 of its 17,000 employees, saving $11 million to $12 million.

The incentives were proposed because the university system lost almost $80 million after state budget cuts for the past school year. The budget was slashed 10 percent for this academic year.

University system spokesman Joe Moore said the combined yearly salaries of the 718 come to $39 million, though "there is no way that anyone should perceive that as (the total) savings."

"We have no idea how many of those people are going to have to be replaced," he said.

Also unknown is how many retirees might be hired back part-time, as the retirement policy allows in special cases.

Two people known to have accepted the retirement offer include system President Manuel Pacheco and University of Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor Blanche Touhill, who both earlier announced their decisions to accept the incentive.

Touhill said Friday in a budget meeting at the St. Louis campus that she expected the savings there from the retirement program would be enough to wipe out the remaining $2.1 million of the $4.5 million deficit that the campus ran up in the fiscal year that ended June 30.

State budget cuts caught all of Missouri's public two- and four-year colleges short last year.

Officials have said early retirement would be offered to roughly 2,000 employees in the four-campus system, with the packages potentially generating as much as $19 million in savings.

The retirement option represents about 12 percent of the full-time faculty and staff that can receive benefits, officials have said. Employees had until Sept. 30 to take early retirements, which would be effective Jan. 1.

The University of Missouri system consists of the University of Missouri-Columbia; University of Missouri-St. Louis; University of Missouri-Kansas City and the University of Missouri-Rolla.