Dr. Steve Angle, Chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, walks across the campus in this 2014 file photo.Roughly 340 employees at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga could get six months' pay as a bonus for retiring early, under a proposal that UTC Chancellor Steve Angle is expected to make Wednesday to the UT Board of Trustees during its two-day winter meeting in Memphis.
If the UT Board approves Angle's proposal Thursday, it could help with UTC's "budget rebalancing" process underway now to reallocate $5.5 million, or about 5 percent of the university's overall budget, which will hold steady while some departments get more funding as others get less.
The proposal
UTC employees should be eligible if they are: * 55 years or older with at least 10 years of service; * or 60 years or older with at least five years of service; * or any age with at least 25 years' service. Source: UTC Chancellor Steve Angle
Online
The UT Board of Trustees meeting will be webcast live and archived for later viewing. For a link to the webcast, go to www.tennessee.edu. The meeting's full agenda and materials will be posted at http://bot.tennessee.edu.The schedule for Wednesday is: 10 a.m., Health Affairs Committee; 1:15 p.m., Finance and Administration Committee, which UTC Chancellor Steve Angle will address; 3:15 p.m., the Research, Outreach and Economic Development Committee. Thursday's schedule is: 8:30 a.m., Academic Affairs and Student Success Committee; 10:15 a.m., Advancement and Public Affairs Committee; 12:45 p.m., full board. Source: UT
UTC spokesman Chuck Cantrell couldn't say Monday how much the early retirement offer could save UTC, because the university doesn't yet know how many people may accept the offer.
"There may be some savings, there may not be a lot," Cantrell said. "Some of them, their work could be doubled up among the existing employees."
All the details of the proposal hadn't been released by 5 p.m. Monday, but eligibility was expected to be based on a combination of age and number of years of service. If approved, the early retirement program would be effective June 30, 2015, and about 340 employees might be eligible, UT spokeswoman Gina Stafford said.
Part-time employees would be eligible, Cantrell said. Their service would be pro-rated, so a half-time employee would have to have worked 20 years to meet the 10-year eligibility requirement. UTC has about 1,200 full-time employees and 900 part-time employees.
John Phillips has taught for 35 years at UTC. The 64-year-old professor may give up teaching philosophy and Greek and retire sooner than he originally planned.
"I would certainly consider the offer," said Phillips, who's "not happy at all" with UTC's budget rebalancing process.
"They're exclusively concerned with saving money with whatever means it would take," said Phillips. He heads UTC's Philosophy and Religion Department, which he said the university plans to merge with its Modern and Classical Languages Department in a cost-cutting move that Phillips said "doesn't make sense."
UTC is the only campus in the UT system to consider offering early retirement.
"At this point ... we are the only ones," Cantrell said. "I do know other campuses are looking at it."
Rumors about the early retirement proposal have been circulating on campus, said Roberta Thurmond, who's taking part in the budget rebalancing process as a representative of UTC's Employee Relations Committee, which represents nonprofessional staff.
"We're worker bees," said Thurmond, who works as an administrative assistant in UTC's Information Technology Department.
"I would imagine ... if you could afford it, people would be interested in [early retirement]," said Thurmond, who started working at UTC in 1981 but isn't 65, the age at which most retirees qualify for Medicare coverage.
"Probably a lot of people are in the same boat that I am," Thurmond said. "We can't get Medicare."
She can't remember the last time UTC offered early retirement to its employees.
"I'm not sure we've ever had one. If we did, it was a long, long time ago," Thurmond said. "It will be interesting to see how many people take advantage of it."
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