How SLU Staff Members Could Be Affected
The St. Lawrence University administration has launched a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program to incentivize resignation of administrative support staff on Oct. 7, 2025, similar to the Early Retirement Incentives that led to the early retirement of 14 SLU professors last year.
Colleen A. Manley, director of human resources, sent an email to administrative support staff, attaching a letter from senior staff regarding this incentive program. The administrative support staff titles included in the email were “Assistant Community Relations, Executive Assistant, Executive Secretary, and all titles within the CSEA [Civil Service Employees Association] bargaining unit occupied before October 1, 2025.” These staff members were given until Nov. 24, 2025, a total of 45 days, to decide whether they want to participate in the program or not. If they agree to join the program, their last day of employment at SLU would be Dec. 31, 2025.
To encourage leaving jobs, this program included a one-time lump sum payment at a two-week salary rate per year worked, some medical insurance benefits, and continued availability for the University’s Tuition Benefit Programs. Additionally, under the MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) between SLU and CSEA, the participating employees will be able to get payment for their unused sick days—only if they are qualified for retirement—and holiday pay even if their employment does not extend in the new year, according to an email from CSEA President Rick Sprague.
SLU Vice President of Finance and Administration, Karl Spiecker, explained the reason for initiating this program as minimizing “the need for layoffs” and to preserve “the University’s core mission.” He described the program with the following words: “This initiative is part of our proactive, long-term effort to strengthen the University’s financial position and align our work more thoughtfully across divisions.”
An administrative assistant at SLU shared that this program was a good offer for them as their retirement was approaching. “For me, this was kind of my job sliding into retirement,” they said. So, this offer was an opportunity to make the transition even more smooth. They were drawn to take the offer mostly because of insurance benefits rather than the sum payment. “Six weeks of pay is like; I could take that or leave it, but the medical benefit was really the issue because I’m not eligible for Medicare yet.” They found the Human Resources Department to be very useful in their decision-making process after their meeting with Mousaw for assistance.
Although they benefited from the offer, they mentioned
possible challenges that come with the program. The university gave them a list of people that were offered the chance to leave their jobs. “It’s a lot of people and a lot of them are quite young,” they said. They highlighted that people over 60 years old have retirement savings while young people will have to find jobs after leaving their SLU jobs. Also, they were worried about leaving their team behind as their office lost a few staff members recently.
The Voluntary Separation Incentive Program is not the first program aimed at cutting the budget allocated for staff and faculty members at SLU. In addition to the Early Retirement Incentives program last year, professional librarians received an email from the Vice President of the University & Dean of Academic Affairs, Alison F. Del Rossi, about an offer to reduce working months. This offer aimed to decrease the “working months to a 10- or 11-month term” for librarians while reducing their salary accordingly and keeping employment benefits on a 12-month basis.