77 Take Early Retirement at UCI

Seventy-seven faculty members at UC Irvine have accepted this year’s early retirement package and will leave the campus by July 1, officials said Friday.

Of 202 UCI faculty eligible for the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program, 38% decided to take it, UCI spokeswoman Karen Newell Young said.

They include: Michael Butler, dean of Undergraduate Studies; Robert Hickok, dean of the School of Fine Arts; Harold Moore, dean of the School of Physical Sciences; F. Sherwood Rowland, well-known chemistry professor and ozone depletion researcher, and James McGaugh, director of the UCI Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

Many of those taking the plan will be called back to the university later this year on a part-time basis, Young said.

The retirement plan is expected to save about $2.6 million in salary at UCI. A similar offer to staff members is estimated to save about $5.2 million. It is the third such plan offered since 1991.

All nine University of California campuses as well as Hastings Law School offered the buyouts. UC Berkeley and UCLA reported the largest number of departing faculty, each losing 195 people. UC Santa Cruz had the largest proportion of faculty taking the offer--44%--while UC San Francisco posted the smallest ratio, less than 30%.