KU announces new retirement plan for tenured staff
Izabelle Koenig | @iz.koenig
The 2025 Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP) offers tenured staff an opportunity to retire on May 22, 2026 with a full year’s pay.
Applicants must be at least a tenured associate professor or librarian with 10 years at KU or a state agency or more and be actively participating in the Kansas Board of Regents 403(b) mandatory retirement plan.
Applications are open Oct. 30 through Dec. 5 and will be reviewed individually based on the university’s needs. As a part of the agreement with United Academics of KU (UAKU) denied applicants will meet with university administrators.
Positions funded entirely by grants, retirees that have been rehired, staff on long term disability and those who finalized retirement before the plan are ineligible for the program.
The program is a part of cost cutting measures being taken across campus as the university experiences a current revenue shortage and an expected shortage for 2027 according to the Office of Provost VSIP webpage.
“To maintain KU’s academic excellence and student experience through this period of structural financial constraint, we are aligning university operations with long-term sustainability goals,” Provost Barbarba Bichelmeyer said in a memo on Oct. 30.
Similar programs were offered in 2018 after $20 million in budget cuts and in 2020 to ease financial strain during the Covid-19 pandemic. But according to the VSIP webpage it is not anticipated that this program will be offered again.
