Faculty buyout initiative announced

[wh]

Valparaiso University offers buyouts to longtime faculty, staff
Annie Mattea Jan 25, 2022 Updated 18 hrs ago

https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/valparaiso-university-offers-buyouts-to-longtime-faculty-staff/article_b836ca5d-0277-579c-84a0-288e8ac5976e.html#tracking-source=in-article-popular

[usc4valpo]

very smart move for both sides - but I feel this program could be alive a couple more times during Padilla's tenure.

[wh]

very smart move for both sides - but I feel this program could be alive a couple more times during Padilla's tenure.

Unfortunately, I have some experience with this. At this point, Padilla and the Board already have a predetermined number of staff cuts that need to be made to balance the budget within a given timeframe. Offering voluntary retirement packages is a typical benevolent first step to make reductions as painless as possible for everyone involved. Management has to be VERY careful to not make anyone eligible for a package feel pressured in any way. For example, no one can say, suggest, or even hint to someone that if they don't take the package, they will be costing someone else their job (even though it could be true). Once the deadline passes, you transition to involuntary terminations, ususally with some sort of severance allowance, although it isn't mandatory in many states unless there is a labor agreement involved. It is a miserable, demoralizing time for everyone involved, that lasts long after the cuts are made. There's only one way to look at it. It's like a cargo ship adrift at sea taking on water. At some point you have to start throwing cargo overboard to lighten the load long enough to get a patch in place before the entire ship goes down. It isn't for the faint of heart.

[usc4valpo]

wh  - hope I didn't sound like a real jerk. if it is voluntary, the package is generous and that's it, then it is not a bad idea. But OMG - If it leads to involuntary, then it really sucks - I went through this with my old company in 2020, resulting in lost trust and empathy.

[usc4valpo]

Shaving salaries at the top is usually a better solution but rarely happens.

[crusadermoe]

Yep, the voluntary is a precursor to limit the number of people in a later headline. I think it's some kind of mandate or just best practice to offer the voluntaries first. 

The bad thing about offering buyouts is that your most capable people are the most able to pocket the buyout money and move on without missing a beat. That's especially true in the high demand faculty areas and ones who have been smart enough to have feelers out during the trainwreck last two years.

How can a Pres. promise it will happen just once in his tenure?  What other options would a board have?

[wh]

wh  - hope I didn't sound like a real jerk. if it is voluntary, the package is generous and that's it, then it is not a bad idea. But OMG - If it leads to involuntary, then it really sucks - I went through this with my old company in 2020, resulting in lost trust and empathy.

No worries, USC. I didn't take it that way at all.

[David81]

Two years of full base pay is comparatively generous. That said, there's an awful feeling of bloodletting during such times, and a school tends to lose some of its best people along with lesser faculty members. My university offered one-year buyouts several years ago, a culmination of the 2008 meltdown impacts, declining enrollments, and some not-so-great decisions by a previous administration. This was accompanied by involuntary layoffs. The damage to trust and morale was deep and lasting. VU appears to be trying to take the higher road on this, and I hope it softens the impact on the campus culture and the affected individuals.

[valpo tundra]

So, with a total of 56 Faculty and Staff accepting the buyout, let's see if that is enough to stem involuntary reductions. We don't want to end up like Lincoln College and many others to come.

[crusadermoe]

That is a big group. Let's hope it included a group who found it to be welcomed timing.