The Faculty Realignment Incentive Program (FRIP) is a program established by the UNC Board of Governors to provide a retirement incentive for eligible tenured faculty members. The Program is voluntary and is not intended to solicit requests broadly for early retirements across the UNC System’s workforce, but rather to be a management-directed initiative addressing the following legislatively imposed criteria:
a. Long-term (recurring) cost savings of a FRIP offer to the institution.
b. Positive long-term impact of a FRIP offer on institutional efficiency and effectiveness.
c. Total one-time cost of contemplated FRIP offers to the institution and its ability to fund.
The Board of Governors established minimum eligibility requirements for faculty who are currently employed as a permanent, benefits-eligible tenured employee of UNCG with a full time equivalent (FTE) of .75 or greater, a minimum age of 55, and at least 10 years of continuous service to UNC institutions. If an eligible faculty member chooses FRIP, after being invited to apply, they will be provided a one-time severance payment in exchange for leaving their tenured position and retiring from their employing institution. Tenured faculty members currently holding a primarily administrative role (e.g. Assistant/Associate Deans whose primary job classification is EHRA non-faculty) are not eligible for this program.
At UNCG, deans will consider faculty who meet the minimum program eligibility requirements established by the Board of Governors. Long-term recurring savings, institutional efficiency, and institutional effectiveness will be determined by deans in consultation with chairs/heads/program directors using data provided by the Office of Institutional Research & Enterprise Data Management’s academic data dashboard and other dashboards such as the teaching productivity metrics. Considerations for efficiency and effectiveness include, but are not limited to, the number of course sections taught, student credit hours generated, state appropriation generated, and curricular demand for the faculty member’s expertise. Scholarship, sponsored program activity, entrepreneurial ventures, and service-related contributions that accrue benefit to the University will also be considered. Deans will prioritize faculty participation with reference to these data and FRIP criteria.
Based on this analysis, the Provost will offer FRIP participation to faculty prioritized by the deans that meet the program requirements. Those invitations will be extended after winter break, in early January. Faculty who elect to participate will receive written agreements. Participation in this program is voluntary. It is anticipated that agreements will be finalized by April 2024, and faculty approved for FRIP will need to apply for retirement in May of 2024 with August 1, 2024 serving as the effective date of retirement. Severance payments will be made prior to the effective date of retirement.
