AAUP Steering Committee Rejects Administration Retirement Proposals

AAUP STEERING COMMITTEE RESOLUTION ON THE ADMINISTRATION’S RETIREMENT PROPOSALS

After careful consideration, at its meeting on Thursday, April 21, the Steering Committee of the AAUP unanimously voted to reject the current administration’s surprising proposal to phase out the retirement leave and the lump-sum retirement payout proportional to years of service.

These retirement benefits, which are similar to well-established forms of deferred compensation, have been in place for the last 20 years, ever since they were negotiated in collective bargaining in the mid-1990s.  Hence for many years UD faculty members have expected and continue to expect that these benefits will still be available when they retire. 

Since only those faculty who are 55 or older qualify for receiving these retirement benefits, they provide an inducement for faculty in their 40s and early 50s to remain at UD, rather than seeking better-paying jobs elsewhere, during their most productive years.  They also provide an inducement for faculty in their 60s and 70s to retire, perhaps a year or two earlier than they might otherwise do so, and thereby open up vacancies which can be filled by hiring younger faculty. 

We therefore believe that these retirement benefits, which during the last 20 years were maintained and even enhanced by the mutual agreement of the AAUP with both the Roselle and the Harker administrations, constitute a well-designed program which is beneficial not only for UD’s loyal faculty members, but also for our university as a whole.