Ken Dryden may write a book based on his almost three decades as a freelance jazz journalist.
He’ll have more time for that now, since Dryden is one of 83 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga employees who decided to accept the university’s offer to retire early in exchange for a lump-sum payment of six months’ salary.
“I’ve got 28 years of source material to go through,” said Dryden, whose day job for the past 25 years has been as underwriting sales specialist for the university’s public radio station, WUTC.
“It’s actually feeling great,” Dryden said of early retirement. “The folks I’ve talked to in my age group love it.”
UTC made the early retirement offer, the first in years, on March 2 to 323 employees, more than a quarter of its full-time, nontemporary staff of roughly 1,100. The offer was part of an ongoing “budget rebalancing” process aimed at reallocating $5.8 million, or about 5 percent of the university’s overall budget.
A total of 105 employees – 35 faculty and 70 nonteaching staff – applied in April.
When the May 29 deadline came to decide, 83 employees opted to go through with retirement. They must leave by June 30.
“I was considering it anyway,” said Jean Dake, director of UTC’s Career and Student Employment Center.
“This is my 40th year,” Dake said. “I’ve had a wonderful, wonderful experience here at UTC.”
The early retirements would save UTC $3.9 million, annually, if no hires are made to replace the retirees, UTC spokesman Chuck Cantrell said.
“That’s not practical, that we’re not going to replace some of them,” he said. “Some of them we will have to fill. We just don’t know [how many] yet.”
Cantrell declined to give a list naming the 83 early retirees Thursday, since it hadn’t been released to faculty and staff.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu @timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu or twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.