To cut costs, SCSU sends retirement offers to 132 faculty members - David Unze, St. Cloud Times

St. Cloud State University on Friday sent early retirement offers to 132 faculty members as part of its plan to close a projected $13.7 million budget deficit for the 2012 fiscal year. The university eventually will eliminate about 30 faculty positions through the early retirement plan, President Earl H. Potter III said. The reductions, called Board Early Separation Incentives, along with an anticipated 30 faculty reductions through attrition and 20 from layoffs, will eliminate about 80 faculty jobs. Those 80 jobs will save the university about $6.5 million for fiscal year 2012, which begins July 1, 2011. “Our approach is to identify a department where there are capacity issues and offer an early retirement to everyone who’s eligible in that department,” Potter said.