As part of Eastern Illinois University President Jay Gatrell’s plans to manage budget concerns, Eastern has implemented a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program for fiscal year 2026. 

Through VSIP, eligible faculty and staff will receive a one-time payment worth 20 weeks of their base annual salary, so long as eligible faculty separate from Eastern on Dec. 31, and academic support professionals and administrative & professional staff separate on Jan. 31, 2026. 

According to the VSIP document, faculty and staff must meet the following criteria to be eligible for the program: 

• Employed in a .75 FTE or higher position in one of the following employee classifications:  
  • Unit A tenured & tenure track / Unit B faculty  
  • ASP & A&P in selected areas based on program or institutional need 
• Have worked at Eastern for two years as of Aug. 1 
• Employees with scheduled retirement dates or a final retirement declaration on or before May 15, 2026 are ineligible to participate 

Eligibility letters were sent to employees by Sept. 12, and those interested in participating in the program were expected to sign their letter and return it to human resources by Oct. 3, according to the document.  

From there, the official VSIP separation form will be distributed to those eligible and interested in the program by Oct. 10, with a deadline to return the completed form to human resources by Oct. 21. 

The program is voluntary, and some positions and employee groups are automatically ineligible to participate in VSIP. According to the document, ineligible employees include: 

• Civil service employees 
• Unit-B employees in admissions & the mental health counseling center 
• A&P employees in the mental health counseling center 
• Part-time / non-status employees 
• Contracted grant / athletics employees 

Employees that work in positions illegible for VSIP would need to be immediately replaced if they were to leave, because a disruption to the services they offer would be “detrimental to the university and students,” according to Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Holly Farley. 

For employee positions not on the ineligibility list, Farley said that determining a need to immediately find a replacement for the position would be determined on a case-by-case basis. The university would make this determination by evaluating whether or not a department had the necessary amount of faculty to deliver the programs offered, she said.  

Farley said that VSIP is an opportunity for Eastern to save an estimated $40,000 to over $100,000 per employee participating in the program, depending on their position.  

While the program could be an option for some employees already nearing retirement, Farley said that VSIP is intended for all eligible employees who have worked at the university for two years or more.  

“We were not targeting people that were close to retirement. That’s why we included anybody that had been here for two years or more,” Farley said. “We did not want to target specific populations or make them feel like, ‘Hey, we really want you to retire,’ because that wasn’t the case at all.” 

Despite Farley seeing VSIP as an opportunity, there have been growing concerns about the program from others in the campus community. 

President of the Eastern Chapter of University of Professionals Illinois and Associate Professor in Biology Billy Hung said he sees both the pros and cons of the program. 

Hung said that the program does offer another option for those considering retirement, but he has concerns about the incentive. 

“20 weeks of wage is not nothing,” Hung said. “It’s good, but it’s not like a whole semester or continuing your employment.” 

Hung said that the voluntary nature of the program and the fact that nobody is being forced to participate are positives. 

“It is the gentlest way you could reduce the number of people on your payroll,” Hung said. 

However, Hung said that the program increases levels of anxiety on campus as people may wonder what challenges Eastern could be facing for the program to be offered. 

“It’s kind of worrisome for the people who are on campus who are not planning on leaving to see this going on,” said Hung. 

Another way that the program causes anxiety is the uncertainty surrounding what happens after someone takes part in it, Hung said. 

“That is also the quiet part of this program. This program incentivizes departure from EIU, but this program says nothing about refilling those positions,” said Hung. “This program only makes sense if the default is not to rehire unless it gravely impacts the operation of a particular department.” 

Head of Scholarly Communications for Library Services and Chair of Faculty Senate Todd Bruns also said he is concerned about what happens when someone takes the program, because not every department is able to pick up the work left behind. 

“That’s a huge impact because whenever you’ve got somebody who has a dedicated position, and they’re the only person doing it when they leave, and you have somebody kind of fill in; it’s a maintain,” Bruns said. 

Bruns is also concerned about the timeliness of the savings becoming available, because it will take time to process everything, he said. 

“The [department] mergers are another example of this. It’s not like, ‘Okay, if we merge two departments and five of these faculty are going to take the voluntary separation, now we have $200,000 in savings,’” said Bruns. “It doesn’t work that way, so it’s something that is going to potentially help the financial sustainability [in the] long term. Short term? Not so much.”

Luke Brewer can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].