St. Thomas has established voluntary retirement incentive programs for staff and tenured faculty members who meet certain age and service criteria.
Beginning Nov. 15, staff and tenured faculty have 90 days – until Feb. 15, 2010 – to notify Academic Affairs (for faculty) and the Human Resources Department (for staff) of their interest in participating in the respective programs. The programs for tenured faculty and staff are slightly different.
This version of each retirement program will provide participants with payments equal to one year of their salary and up to three years of health care coverage at their St. Thomas employee rate.
To be eligible, individuals must meet the following criteria on the date of application to the program:
- Be age 55 or older.
- Have a combined age and years of full-time service with the University of St. Thomas equal to or greater than 70 (e.g., age 55 and 15 years of service or age 60 and 10 years of service).
- Have completed at least 10 years of continuous full-time service with the university.
For purposes of determining eligibility under the programs, applicants must meet age and length of service criteria as of the date of their application.
Nontenured faculty, staff covered by a labor contract and temporary employees (including adjunct faculty) are not eligible to participate in the programs.
Retirement must occur on or before May 31, 2010, for tenured faculty and on or before June 30, 2010, for staff.
Payments in the form of salary continuation will be made for one year on a biweekly basis beginning the first pay period after the retirement date. All other university employee benefits, except for the optional health care insurance and any benefits mandated by statute, will cease at the time of retirement. Retirement contributions will not be paid during the salary continuation period.
A request for early retirement must be initiated voluntarily and in writing by an eligible faculty or staff member. In the case of tenured faculty, his or her dean must approve the request. The appropriate member of the Academic and Administrative Leadership Group must approve requests from staff. Final approval must be given by the appropriate executive vice president, who has the ability to limit the number of participants in the program based on the needs of the university.
Positions vacated due to faculty or staff participation in the programs must remain vacant for at least one year.
The complete plans and application forms are available on the Department of Human Resources Web site. You also can contact Joe Kreitzer, Ext. 2-6032, for inquiries related to tenured faculty, and Edna Comedy, Ext. 2-6511, for questions related to staff participation.
