Message from the Dean: Voluntary Retirement Program

How are we responding to the Voluntary Retirement Program (VRP)?

Editor’s note: The information in this column is intended for staff and faculty in the College of Education and may include information that is specific to the college. Staff and faculty in other areas of the University should contact their own unit's leadership for information that pertains to them.

You’re probably aware that Penn State offered a Voluntary Retirement Program (VRP) to eligible employees earlier this semester. Eligibility requirements included age, length of service and specific retirement dates.

Those who qualified had to indicate their intentions by the end of September. In the College of Education, 26 of our colleagues were eligible and 11 elected to participate (42 percent). In most cases, these retirements will be effective on June 30, 2017. Collectively, these positions represent $1,074,900, not counting fringe benefits.

Decisions to retire are bittersweet for the University. On the one hand, we are losing the expertise and institutional knowledge of colleagues who in many cases have contributed to the University for long periods of time; on the other hand, the departures create opportunities to welcome new colleagues who may have new ideas, new areas of expertise and who will help us build the University of the future. I suspect and hope retirement decisions are also bittersweet for the individuals involved.

The VRP invites questions about what happens to the resources being released by the departures. When retirements occur outside of the VRP, the resources remain in the colleges and the University expects the colleges to make good decisions about how to utilize the freed-up resources. Our practice in the College of Education is for the resources to be returned to the dean’s office with the understanding that the affected department has the opportunity (along with the other departments) to make the case for new positions. This process has allowed us to use our strategic plan to help steer resources toward their most productive uses.

The process is different for the resources affected by the VRP. These resources are being swept up by the central University with the understanding that the colleges and campuses will have the opportunity to make the case for returns to meet pressing strategic needs. I am working with our department heads and the other deans to make our case for the return of these resources to the College of Education. Nick Jones has made it clear that the University will be holding some portion of the returned resources to support University strategic priorities, so it is pretty clear that the return will not be 100 percent of the $1,074,900.

My speculation is that at minimum, the University will be retaining what is sometimes called the “breakage” on the salaries (i.e., the difference between the salary of a more senior individual who is retiring and the salary of a more junior successor). It remains to be seen how much more the University will retain beyond the breakage figure. It also remains to be seen how quickly we will know the dollar amount of what will be returned.

At the moment, we have seven tenure-line faculty searches launched. I do not anticipate approving any additional searches until we know more about the outcome of the VRP process, but it may be possible to do some restoration within the existing searches. For example, educational psychology is one of the areas of the college that is being affected by the VRP, and we have already launched a search in educational psychology. We will proceed carefully, and it is worth keeping in mind that the restorations do not all need to happen at once. The key is to think carefully about our needs, to search diligently and to make the right appointments. I’m reminded of the old saw stipulating that a “failed search” is a search where you hire the wrong person rather than a search that needs to be rolled into the next time period.

You may have noticed how often I’ve used the word “strategic” in this column. Penn State has always taken strategic planning quite seriously, but it’s clear that Eric and Nick are placing even greater emphasis on developing and implementing a well-crafted strategic plan for the University. The University’s strategic plan also figures prominently in the fundraising campaign that began last July.

The College of Education has been actively involved in this effort. In addition to working hard on developing and implementing our strategic plan, Kathy Bieschke served on the University’s planning committee, and I am serving on the executive committee for the Transforming Education strategic theme and chairing the Interface between K-12 and Postsecondary Education subcommittee. Others are also involved on the numerous steering committees and task forces that are at work.

Thank you all for your commitments to the college. These are challenging times that are also rich in opportunity, and it is a privilege to work with you to realize the full potential of this remarkable college.

— David H. Monk,
Dean, College of Education

Last Updated November 16, 2016