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FERP helps ease
into retirement
By Marten Lewerth
On-line Forty-Niner
Retirement in any
field can lead to difficult periods of personal and institutional
transition.
But for many faculty
members in the California State University system an increasingly
popular program is available to lessen the impact.
The Faculty Early
Retirement Program (FERP) allows tenured faculty members and
librarians the option of easing into post-work life by entering
a five-year period of semi-retirement in which work and course
loads are cut in half.
"The program
is a way for faculty members to phase into full retirement,"
said Cordelia Ontiveros, senior director of academic human
resources at the CSU Chancellor's Office. "But at the
same time, the university still benefits and students receive
the expertise of senior faculty members for a little while."
To be eligible,
participants must be 55 years or older with at least five
years on the job. Once accepted they have the option of teaching
full time during one semester or half time during both semesters
of each academic year for up to five consecutive years. During
this time the faculty members receive half of their full-time
salaries plus all of their retirement pensions, according
to state documents.
"A very large
percentage of faculty will enter the program as opposed to
retirement," said Gary Reichard, vice president of academic
affairs at CSULB. "It benefits both the university and
faculty members and is attractive psychologically as well."
Ontiveros said
the number of eligible retirees taking advantage of FERP has
grown in recent years.
"Each year
about half of the people who retire go into FERP," said
Ontiveros, who added that more than 55 percent of faculty
members in the CSU system are 50 years of age or older.
Last year Ontiveros
said 1,020 faculty members took advantage of the program systemwide
during the academic calendar, up from 757 in 1999-2000. At
CSULB there were 86 in 2000-2001, 14 more than the previous
year.
Currently, 98 individuals
are in FERP at CSULB, according to Reichard. Of 37 faculty
members that retired from full-time work at the end of spring
2001, 23 entered the program at the beginning of this academic
year.
However, the years
involved in the FERP program are a point of contention in
contract negotiations between the California Faculty Association
and the CSU, because the CSU wants to reduce the length of
FERP contracts from to five to three years.
As part of its
three-year proposal currently on the table to the CFA, the
CSU is calling for a one-year reduction in 2003-2004 and another
one-year reduction in 2004-2005. The issue would then be up
for re-negotiation at the end that period.
Ontiveros said
the CSU's reasoning behind shortening the contracts is mostly
due to the rising number of faculty members approaching retirement
age. Also, she said, a by-product of FERP is that universities
may be forced to hire more part-time lecturers to take up
the slack and the program may delay the hiring of new tenure-track
personnel.
Not surprisingly
the CSU's bid has been met with resistance from members of
the faculty group.
"The CSU's
stance is a serious mistake. It hurts faculty and it hurts
students," said Martin Fiebert, president of the CSULB
chapter of the CFA. "Senior faculty have strong relationships
with students and their skills are very important for departments."
The issue will
not be the top priority when negotiation talks resume Friday
before a state mediator, but Fiebert and other CFA officials
said the issue is important because senior faculty members
value the program.
"Our position
is still for the status quo, even though we're willing to
negotiate," said Jim Smith, communications director for
the CFA.
"The reason
they established this program was to give retired faculty
a chance to come back," he said. "It's only in the
past few years that it's become a hot potato."
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