NU president announces buyout plan for tenured faculty

University of Nebraska President Jeffrey Gold on Friday announced plans to offer voluntary buyouts to some faculty members to help close a large budget gap.

Gold laid out the plans in an email sent to university employees Friday morning.

He said the voluntary separation plan would be offered to “eligible tenured faculty” across all campuses.

According to a Q&A provided via a link in Gold’s email, those eligible for the program are tenured faculty members who are 62 and older and who have at least 10 years of service.

Those who accept the offer and are approved would receive a lump sum payment equal to 70% of their base annual salary, and they would not have to leave until June 30 of next year if they are on a yearlong appointment or Aug. 15, 2026, if they are on a nine-month appointment.

Gold said application materials will be sent to eligible faculty soon, and they will have until Sept. 30 to decide whether to apply for the offer.

“We believe it is both appropriate and timely to offer a flexible retirement option to our most senior faculty, many of whom have given decades of service to the university and played a significant role in advancing the university’s mission,” Gold said in the email. “We understand from campus-wide input that some faculty may be contemplating retirement; the VSIP offers a meaningful pathway for those individuals, while also providing the university with the opportunity to strategically realign resources by reinvesting in key priorities and preparing for future uncertainties."

UNL Faculty Senate President John Shrader had a guarded reaction. "I've talked with several of my colleagues this morning, and most of them seem to be a bit underwhelmed. It's 70% of the base salary and no health insurance offered with that. And the last three times... that VSIP (Voluntary Separation Incentive Program) was offered, it was at a much higher rating," he said.

Shrader also expressed concern about "losing good people who've been here for a long time, who understand the institution, who know the state, who know the students. They they're good researchers, they're good teachers, probably great researchers and great teachers. And you run the risk of losing those people and then they get replaced with less-expensive, younger faculty members who will at some point be very good, too."

William Aviles, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, had a different reaction.

Aviles, who is president of the UNK Education Association, the faculty union, called the voluntary buyout a "positive development."

"Voluntary separation is definitely preferable to involuntary separation," said Aviles, who noted that UNK faculty has faced layoffs twice in the past five years.

He said his main complaint about the plan is the timing, with professors having less than two months to make a "pretty significant decision."

NU spokesperson Cara Pesek said 503 faculty are eligible for the buyout, systemwide. She said it's too early to say how many are expected to accept the offer, or how much would be saved.

The offer comes as the university system and its individual campuses face large budget deficits due to a combination of rising costs and cuts to revenue.

NU had sought a 3.5% annual increase in appropriations for the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 fiscal years, but the legislature approved only a 0.0625% annual increase.

Gold said several weeks ago that NU had to cut $20 million, and he cited a number of factors, including a cap on federal funding for research facilities and unfunded mandates from state governments on tuition waivers.

The Board of Regents voted to raise tuition 5% at all NU campuses to help bring in more money.

Some individual campuses have already announced plans to cut their budget. The University of Nebraska Medical Center last month announced plans for an across-the-board 4% cut from all departments.

Last week, UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett floated the possibility of buyouts as well as cutting entire academic programs to deal with UNL’s $27.5 million budget deficit.

The University of Nebraska at Kearney and the University of Nebraska Omaha have yet to announce their plans for cuts.

By way of full disclosure, members of the Nebraska Public Media newsroom are University of Nebraska-Lincoln employees.