Volunteer retirement offered for Southeast staff members

Since Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens announced state budget cuts in January, Southeast Missouri State University has been making changes to offset them.

In May, the Board of Regents approved a 2.8 percent tuition and fee increase beginning this semester. The increase will bring $1.34 million to the university, according to a Southeast news release.

At the June Board of Regents meeting, the fiscal year 2018 budget was approved.

This budget helps with the base cut and one-time withholding in state appropriations, which comes to 9 percent and equals $4.3 million.

One of the main plans that goes along with the budget is a volunteer retirement program.

“It is an opportunity to reduce our personnel cost, but to do it through vacancy,” said Kathy Mangels, vice president for finance and administration.

About 200 staff members are eligible for this program.

The application period for staff members started Tuesday and will end Oct. 13.

Southeast officials have mailed information, had meetings and placed information on a webpage about the new program.

“It is a voluntary program; it’s up to the employee if they want to choose to participate,” Mangels said.

The incentive for this program is a cash payment of 35 percent of a staff member’s base salary.

Base salary is what staff members normally would receive but does not include extras, such as salary for teaching summer classes.

“So, what the program does is it offers a one-time cash incentive to employees that meet certain parameters,” Mangels said.

Staff members will pick one of two dates for retirement: Dec. 31, 2017, or Dec. 31, 2018.

“We do look at how we can be strategic and not just cut across the board at the institution,” Mangels said.

Positions will be evaluated, and decisions will be made about whether a position needs to be refilled, Mangels said.

Also, if one department needs more staff and another department could use less staff, those changes will be evaluated and made.

“It gives us the ability to reallocate resources to other places,” Mangels said.

Thirteen positions already have been vacated and dissolved to help the budget. This program will help the budget because a newer staff member’s salary will be lower than a staff member who had a lengthy tenure with the university.

“You’re going to start out with someone at an entry level, and that’s going to be a lower salary,” Mangels said. “So, you have savings in that salary.”

Also, the new retirement programs cost less for Southeast than the older programs, Mangels said.

Since the cuts in January, administrators have begun to plan ahead for the next three years.

“Come next January, February, when the governor announces the budget, we want to be proactive and planning ahead,” Mangels said.