Joan F. Rice, vice president for human resources, reported to the Academic Council Tuesday as Tech Talk went to press that 547 members of the MIT community have made final decisions to take the early retirement incentive program. Another 110 individuals as of yesterday (May 7) had committed to retire, but still have time to change their decision.
President Charles M. Vest commented, "Many of our staff and faculty decided this program was advantageous for them. Their contributions to the life of this community have been extraordinary, and they have made a great difference to this special place."
Revocation of the contractual agreement to retire may be made only by personally visiting the Retirement Incentive Office (Rm 16-542) and signing a refusal form before 5pm of the ninth day after the original decision. The deadline is today, May 8, for those who said "yes" on April 29, and tomorrow, May 9, for those who agreed to retire on April 30.
On campus, 291 administrative, support and service staff members have made final decisions, and 65 can still revoke their decision. At Lincoln Laboratory, 187 employees have made final decisions and 34 can still revoke the decision. Among the faculty, 69 have made final decisions and 11 still can revoke that commitment.
Ms. Rice said that, by agreement with the Executive Committee of the Corporation and in conjunction with reengineering, no more than 50 percent of the administrative, support and service staff members who choose early retirement will be replaced.
Provost Joel Moses noted that the basic goal of the faculty retirement program is to open positions for new assistant professors, not to reduce the faculty size.
The total number of employees eligible for the early retirement programs was 1,386. Of those, 294 were faculty members but only 196 were eligible for the 60+ and 65+ special programs instituted by Provost Moses.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 8, 1996.
