FAMU’s stimulus dollars are drying up and painful personnel cuts lie ahead. The university has now introduced a payout proposal for 110 workers who are being paid with stimulus dollars that will expire on June 30, 2011.As Rattler Nation previously reported, FAMU used all of its federal unrestricted stimulus dollars to save employee jobs. This approach was very different from the one used by Florida’s other public land grant university, the University of Florida.
According to the Gainesville Sun, “UF used $6.4 million for final payouts to laid-off faculty and staff, and another $7.6 million was paid for early retirement incentives meant to prevent layoffs.”
UF used about $10M stimulus dollars to hire new faculty members in areas such as medicine which attract big research grants. Next year, UF will start using tuition dollars to pay those salaries.
On March 3 the FAMU Board of Trustees gave university attorneys the authorization to initiate discussions with the bargaining units that would allow for a one-time lump sum separation incentive for eligible employees. After the unions are provided with the opportunity to weigh in on the proposal, the proposal will go before the BOT for consideration.
The proposed program has been named the Voluntary Retirement Option (VRO) Plan.
Eligible employees will receive lump sum payments that will be equivalent to their current annual twelve-, ten- or nine-month base rates of pay. The lump sum payment will exclude all summer semester and other forms of compensation.
VRO participants must be at least 62 years of age, have 30 years of service to the State of Florida, have at least six years of such experience at FAMU, and must be employed in a 1.00 FTE (Full-Time Equivalency) position funded 100 percent by Education and General (E&G) Funds; and
Employees who have previously retired from State of Florida, ever enrolled in the Deferred Retirement Option Program, or have received a notice of non-renewal will not be eligible for VRO.