OF RECORD

Changes in Faculty Income Allowance Program: January 1

Current Program: The Faculty Income Allowance Program (FIAP) was established in 1996 to provide transitional payments for two years to a faculty member who elects to retire before reaching the age of sixty-nine. These transitional payments are based on the average salary for Professors in the school of the faculty member. They are available to any faculty member between the ages of sixty-two and sixty-eight provided the faculty member's service at the University of Pennsylvania exceeds fifteen years at the time of retirement. Faculty members who complete fifteen years of service after reaching the age of sixty-nine become eligible for the benefits of FIAP at the end of fifteen years of service. More extensive information on the current program can be found at:  www.hr.upenn.edu/benefits/retirement/fiap.asp.

Changes to Program: The second and third recommendations in the report of the Task Force on Faculty Retirement (Almanac, September 10, 2002) suggested changes in the Faculty Income Allowance Program:

2. The current Early Retirement Window (ages 62-68) should be maintained. A faculty member also should be eligible for an early retirement incentive under a "rule of 75." Faculty could retire as early as age sixty (minimum age) with a combination of age and service at the University of Pennsylvania equaling 75.

The "rule of 75" has the effect of making a slight reduction in the number of years of service required of most faculty members for eligibility for the Faculty Income Allowance Program. It also has the effect of making an extremely large reduction in the service required of faculty members who join the University very late in their careers. Since such a large reduction seems excessive, the recommendation of the Task Force is approved with the additional condition that the minimum service required for eligibility for the Faculty Income Allowance Program will be ten years. The Table (below) compares the eligibility windows of the current program with the eligibility windows of the new program.

3.  The faculty salary to be used in the Faculty Early Retirement Program should be changed to the faculty member's own salary or a full professor's average salary in the faculty member's own school in the year prior to retirement, whichever is higher, subject to a limitation of 200 percent of the faculty member's own salary as provided by law.

This recommendation is approved.

These changes will be effective as of January 1, 2004. They will be incorporated in future descriptions of the Faculty Income Allowance Program. Faculty members who have questions should raise them with their department chair, with the office of their dean, or with the Office of the Associate Provost.

--Walter Wales, Interim Associate Provost