Short staffs worry Missouri’s faculty

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — University of Missouri faculty members are raising concerns that the system’s move to offer buyouts to its senior professors could leave some academic departments gutted.

The university system recently notified full-time and tenured faculty members older than 62 of an option to receive a payout of 1.5 times their annual salary, up to $200,000, beginning Sept. 1. Eligible faculty members at the Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis campuses must have worked in the system at least five years.

University system spokesman Christian Basi told the Kansas City Star that the buyout program will save money, allow for more raises and serve as a way to “thank senior faculty for their contributions to the university.”

“This is the third such buyout in the 23 years I have been at UMKC,” said Gary Ebersole, a longtime history professor at the Kansas City campus. “In the last goround, the entire math and statistics department at UMKC took early retirement, and a few months before the new school year, the university had to scramble to offer math and statistics courses.”

He said the university ended up having to hire many of the same faculty members back.

UMKC officials said they couldn’t confirm a time dating back to 1984 when the math and statistics department was without any fulltime faculty members.