SUNY ESF in Syracuse is hoping an early retirement option can help close the school’s $6 million budget deficit.
The good news for ESF this fall is that it’s enrolled its fourth largest class since 2002. The bad news is it continues operating with a deficit, with personnel costs the largest part of its budget. SUNY ESF President Joanie Mahoney said that’s why the school has started offering a voluntary separation program for eligible faculty and staff.
“We're hoping that if we can reduce those, give a little bit of breathing room, get through what have been some dramatic cuts to our research program and to a lot of areas in higher ed, then we'll be on good firm footing going forward,” said Mahoney.
This is not a SUNY-wide initiative, and is funded through the school’s foundation.
“What we can offer is that lump sum payment and we're offering people a percentage of their salary and a dollar amount for every year that they've been at ESF, hoping that people who maybe are considering retirement would do it this year to give us some relief on our budget,” Mahoney said.
The college is considering other cost-cutting options, like combining departments and reducing the cost of administration. But Mahoney said it’s hard to fight the anti-higher education headwinds coming out of Washington.
“We have research scientists at ESF that have had their research grants canceled,” she said. So we're having to scramble to try to continue some of these really important research projects that you don't want to have a lapse in. So there's just a lot of moving pieces, and this voluntary program is our first attempt to give us a little breathing room with our budget.”
Mahoney says the first day the program went live, more than a dozen people contacted the HR department to talk about it.
