Statistics from the University of Illinois campuses show that in the six months leading to July 1 this year, 1008 academic and staff members decided to retire, compared to 507 employees for the same period last year. At the Urbana-Champaign campus, 491 employees retired in the first six months of this year when compared to 223 for the same period in 2011. Forty-five employees retired from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in June 2011. A year later, that number jumped to 82.
Overall, across public universities in the state, 3,356 employees retired in the first six months of 2012. Last year, 2,171 employees retired in the same time period, according to the State Universities Retirement System of Illinois. Angie Lieb, director of member services for the State Universities Retirement System, said that many employees who were going to retire in the next year or so bumped up their date of departure.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/16/retirements-spike-illinois-universities-due-pension-changes
