Conn College offers early retirement due to trends at high school level
Decision was made by board of trustees in February despite record in applications
New London — Connecticut College, wary of a dwindling number of high school graduates and what that could mean for enrollment, has offered eligible employees a chance to take an early retirement with extra benefits.
It’s a decision the board of trustees made in mid-February, even after learning the small private school received a record-breaking 6,425 applications for the coming academic year.
In a Feb. 17 message to the college community, President Katherine Bergeron said the offer comes during “a period when we see the population of high school students declining across the country and the financial need of that population rising.”
Indeed, data from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education show the number of high school graduates nationwide could decrease 4.6 percent by 2032.
In Connecticut, the decline is expected to be 19.2 percent, from 40,783 graduates in the 2017-18 school year to 32,968 in 2031-32.
“To ensure the continued excellence of the education we offer,” Bergeron said in the memo, “we must begin adjusting to a smaller student body with proportionate faculty and staff support.”
According to its website, Conn has 1,865 enrolled undergraduate students. Archived versions of the college’s website show it had 1,600 students in 2001, which grew to an apparent peak of 1,900 students about 2007 and stayed there for several years before beginning to drop back down.
The college’s student-tofaculty ratio long has been 9-to-1.
Bergeron said the one-time, voluntary retirement offer is just the start of “a multi-year process” to respond to enrollment trends. Across the country, other private colleges also have deliberately downsized in recent years, including Loyola University New Orleans, Wagner College on Staten Island and St. Michael’s College in Vermont.
In a Feb. 19 letter to faculty and staff, Bergeron outlined criteria for the offer.
To qualify, an employee’s “years of continuous benefits-eligible service” combined with his or her age must equal 75 or more as of June 30. Tenured faculty receiving benefits under the college’s phased retirement plan or exit incentive plan don’t qualify, and neither do those who already signed an agreement to retire on or before June 30.
The offer, Bergeron noted, comes “with financial support and other benefits in excess of what would be available under ordinary circumstances.”
College spokeswoman Deborah MacDonnell said administrators have decided not to release the number of employees eligible for the offer. Eligible faculty and staff have until April 27 to make their decision.
It’s too soon to say whether the college will replace those who accept the offer. That depends on which positions end up being vacated, MacDonnell said.
“We’re not cutting positions,” she stressed. “We’re making an offer to those who might be considering (retirement) anyway. Sustaining quality, as always, is a high priority.”