Regents send UI early retirement incentive back to the drawing board

The University of Iowa will go back to the drawing board for a second round of an early retirement incentive, after the state Board of Regents today asked UI officials to make changes to the proposal and bring it back to the board in March.

Several regents said the UI proposal was much more generous than the early retirement incentives offered by Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. All three universities offered early retirement windows last summer and fall as a way to cut budgets without laying off staff.

The UI proposal asks for regent permission to offer a second round of the early retirement incentive this spring, for employees to retire by the end of this fiscal year. It would be open to all UI faculty and staff at least 55 years old, but does not have a years of employment requirement. Several regents said they did not like that.

The UI plan also includes health and dental coverage for five years and retirement contributions for three years.

Regent Michael Gartner called the UI plan much richer than the ISU and UNI plans, and also better than the early retirement incentive recently approved for state of Iowa employees.

UI officials, in revising the proposal, should keep in mind the state's offering “so we don't further the impression in the state of Iowa that there is the Board of Regents and there's everybody else as a matter of state employees, which I think is damaging to us in the eyes of citizens and in the eyes of the Legislature.”