Faculty Relinquishment

The SOU relinquishment process allows faculty members to plan for the transition into retirement while also allowing the University the ability to evaluate departmental needs. Faculty members who relinquish receive an increase to their base salary and may be eligible for a post-retirement health insurance incentive. It is up to the faculty member to review the APSOU CBA and relevant retirement information as it pertains to relinquishment.

Qualifications for Relinquishment

To qualify for relinquishment, the faculty member must be in a tenured or three-year extendable contract and must be at least 55 years of age. The faculty member must also be able to retire at the end of their relinquishment agreement, as this is required. The Relinquishment Agreement must be effective no more than one year from the intended relinquishment start date.

Timeline for Relinquishment

Eligible faculty members who are interested in relinquishing their tenure or three-year extendable contract should pay particular attention to their email inbox near the end of March. This is when the HR Director will email faculty notifying them that the Provost Office is accepting intent to relinquish. The faculty member will notify the Provost Office through their Director by April 15th of their intent for relinquishment. The Provost Office will then return a drafted Relinquishment Agreement to the faculty member for their review by May 15. Post-retirement appointments may also be worked out at this point as well, being included in the Agreement, though pay attention to the hour restrictions detailed below. The faculty member then has until June 15 to return the final signed Agreement to the Provost’s Office. Relinquishment Agreements may be created up to three years out from the anticipated retirement date, but no later. The faculty member must also pick either September 15 or December 31 as their separation date from SOU.

Relinquishment Incentives

According to the APSOU CBA, Article 14, Section D.1, for the duration of the Relinquishment Agreement, the faculty member will get a 6% bump in their base salary, even if their base salary increases during the Agreement. In addition to this increase, as described in Section E.4, faculty members who are under the age of 65 may also be eligible for one of two post-retirement health insurance incentives, summarized below:

1. The faculty member may elect to enroll in the PEBB Retiree Program, which allows them to continue the same medical, dental, and vision benefits currently available through PEBB as an active employee (optional benefits are not included in the PEBB Retiree Program). If the faculty member enrolls in this incentive, before separation from SOU, the Benefits Officer will reach out via email and ask them to complete the PEBB Retiree Enrollment Form. The premium dollar amount from the elections made on the enrollment form determines the amount SOU will cover while enrolled in the program (coverage ends the month before age 65). If rates increase, the faculty member is responsible for the difference after SOU’s premium contribution. SOU will cover the premium amount up to the employee/spouse or employee/partner tier. However, the faculty member may enroll dependent children but is immediately responsible for the cost difference. If a faculty member passes away before the end of the effective period of the health benefits, their dependents may continue health benefits, as provided by the plan.
2. The faculty member may elect to have a lump-sum payment of 25% of the determined value of option one above, which will appear in the faculty member’s final paycheck. (The faculty member may enroll in the PEBB Retiree Program outside of this relinquishment incentive.)

Faculty members who enroll in either of the above incentives and also have post-retirement work are not allowed to work in benefit-eligible positions until over the age of 65, meaning they can’t work in a position that requires at least 80 hours of service in a pay period. This is because they are either already actively receiving PEBB health insurance coverage or they have received payment for health insurance until age 65. Hour restrictions may also apply due to retirement programs and tiers.

Faculty members who are over age 65 at the end of their Relinquishment Agreement simply retire. Post-retirement positions for those over age 65 may not have the PEBB hour restrictions, though specific hour restrictions may be applied to their retirement program and tier that they are retiring from.