YSU trustees don’t vote on faculty retirement buyout expansion
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State University trustees did not act on an expansion of a faculty-retirement buyout proposal that the faculty says could have saved more than $2 million.
Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, chief negotiator for the YSU-Ohio Education Association, the union representing YSU faculty, said the union approved a memorandum of understanding to expand the retirement buyout to tenured faculty with at least 20 years of service for those who retire by August 2016.
The recently approved contract offered the incentive to faculty with at least 25 years of service.
“We really don’t understand,” Palmer-Fernandez said. “Faculty who have been at YSU for at least 20 years, the vast majority are full professors.”
The average faculty salary is about $73,000.
“What we’re doing is lowering, decreasing the burden on the payroll,” he said. “That generates the savings.”
He estimated that 10 faculty members would be eligible for the buyout for about $2.5 million in savings in salary and benefits.
Martin Abraham, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said there was a “robust discussion” in executive session among trustees, but the proposal was not introduced for a vote. He doesn’t anticipate that it will be in the future, either.
“There was a mixed response,” he said, declining to provide details because the discussion was behind closed doors.
The discussion over several hours was part of trustees’ Collective Bargaining and Negotiations Subcommittee agenda.
The provost said the amount of potential savings would depend on a lot of factors including the number of faculty members who take the buyout, whether they are replaced and how quickly.
This year and the second year of the contract, those eligible for retirement would receive a $40,000 buyout paid over four years. The buyout replaced the extended teaching service that had been in place at YSU for years.
There are other implications besides cost.
“From an academic standpoint, we would lose some senior-level people who bring a perspective to the university that is not easily replaced,” Abraham said.
Abraham, who brought the proposal to the trustees, however, viewed it as a good move for YSU.
“I wouldn’t have brought it to the board of trustees if I didn’t think there was a benefit to the university,” he said. “This is not something I can do on my own. It’s a board decision, and it has substantial financial impacts. They’re taking the broad view, which is their job. It’s got implications that go well beyond what falls within my purview.”
Trustee Ted Roberts, an attorney who’s chairman of the Collective Bargaining and Negotiations Subcommittee, wouldn’t talk about the committee’s discussion.
“The matter was discussed in executive session; therefore I’m not at liberty to discuss that discussion, and there was no action taken,” he said.