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Dynes: VERIP 'Doesn't Make Sense' for UC
President Robert Dynes recently sent employees a clear message that no Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Program (VERIP) will be offered any time soon.
Writing in the Our University on-line newsletter's March issue (www.ucop.edu/news/budget/issue12.html)
in his Dynes' Desk column, the president tried to quash persistent rumors
that a VERIP could happen as UC heads into what many believe will be its
toughest budget year yet.
Responding to a query about the University offering a VERIP "in the near future," Dynes wrote: "The short answer is 'no'." He added that a VERIP "just doesn't make sense for the University right now, or even in the next several years…"
His reasoning was primarily based on UC's steady enrollment growth and the "need to retain the majority of our faculty and staff to support the core academic mission." He alluded to the "major challenges and costs in recruiting faculty" already confronting the campuses.
In addition, the costs of a VERIP, even a limited one, to the UC Retirement Plan would be a "significant... burden" on the plan.
Currently, employees do not contribute to the UCRP through payroll deductions. Dynes, for the first time, noted that "a recent actuarial analysis found that the likelihood of having to resume contributions to UCRP within the next five years has increased substantially. Funding a VERIP would cause employer and employee contributions to the University's retirement program to begin sooner than would be the case without a VERIP."
The bottom line, he wrote, "is that the University will not offer a UCRP retirement incentive...for the next three years, and has no current plans to offer such a program after that time."