The Faculty Early Retirement Program allows retirement age eligible faculty to begin receiving retirement income while still earning up to one half their salary (one half the annual salary earned the year prior to retirement). This program affords faculty a transitional period of up to five years whereby they move from full-time employment to full-time retirement (To compare FERP with another transitional program, also see the Pre-Retirement Reduction in Time Base (PRTB) program).

• Participation in FERP commences at the beginning of the academic year.

• In order to enter into FERP, the applicant must be granted a service retirement either prior to or concurrently with the start of the academic year. Contact Human Resources for information regarding service retirement.

• FERP participants may elect to work full-time for one semester each academic year they participate in the program (not to exceed 90 days per semester), or they may choose to work half their regular time base for the entire academic year. Most FERP participants choose the former option.

• Participants may request a reduction in their FERP timebase; these requests are subject to the approval of the President. Reductions in timebase are permanent, and continue for the remainder of the FERP appointment.

• All tenured faculty except Counseling Faculty Unit Employees are eligible to participate in FERP, so long as they meet the other conditions specified in Article 29 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement

• Faculty who wish to enter FERP must notify the President in writing, via the Office of Faculty Affairs, at least six (6) months in advance, so that departments have sufficient time to plan course assignments. Under certain circumstances, the six-month notice requirement may be waived.

• FERP participants are ineligible for leaves of absence without pay; they are also ineligible for sabbatical or difference in pay leaves. Participants are eligible, however, to take one leave without pay for documented medical reasons. Such leaves do count against the period of eligibility.

• Participants may elect to carry over up to 48 hours of earned sick leave into the FERP appointment. Full-time FERP participants also earn sick leave at the rate of eight (8) hours per pay period; less than full-time participants earn sick leave on a pro-rata basis. A maximum of one hundred sixty (160) hours of sick leave may be accrued.

For additional information, see Article 29 of the CBA. Application forms may be obtained from the Office of Faculty Affairs if you are unable to open the form above.