393 apply for early retirement

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

fter weeks of meeting with employees considering early retirement, Human Resources processed 393 applications for the state-sponsored program before the deadline of Feb. 15. Ninety-three faculty, 111 professional staff, and 189 classified staff applied through Human Resources.

     Because employees had the option of applying directly to the state, 393 is not the total number of applications by campus employees. However, the number of direct applications is likely to be small, according to James Coopee, personnel administrator in Human Resources. And applications for early retirement do not require employees to actually retire. Those who are accepted have the option of withdrawing their request until June 15.

     "We won't know the true number [of people taking early retirement] until after June 15," Coopee said. Because the legislature is still considering whether to offer early retirement to trust-funded employees, more staff may have the opportunity to apply for the program in the coming weeks.

     "Our office is getting ready for that," Coopee said. "A number of employees have already expressed interest."

     In addition to group information sessions that hundreds of employees attended, Human Resources staff met individually with 595 faculty and classified and professional staff to help them determine whether early retirement is an option they wanted to take.

     "They've stepped up so much," Coopee said. "I'm so proud of our staff. They've been stretched incredibly, and they've responded incredibly."