COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - Almost half of eligible academic administrators at the University of Missouri have accepted voluntary buyouts.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports 13 of the 28 eligible administrators accepted buyouts of 1.5 times their salaries, not to exceed $200,000. The buyouts, which were announced in January, were offered to tenured faculty as long as they were at least 62 and eligible for retirement by Aug. 31.
The requirements for the buyouts are similar to those of the buyouts that were offered to faculty members last year. More than one hundred faculty members took buyouts in September that the school said saved the institution about $17.7 million. There were 261 faculty members who were eligible for a buyout.
School officials declined to reveal the identities of those who accepted the buyouts, citing protection of personnel records.
"The employees choosing to participate in this voluntary buyout program remain current university personnel as they go through this process," said Kelly Peery, strategic communications manager for the UM System, in a statement. "For this reason, they are closed. ... Once these employees are indeed retired, the information of their dates of service and compensation would become open record."
According to the university, the money that was saved will be used to hire new faculty.