With budget pressures mounting, more colleges and universities are offering buyouts to faculty and staff in an attempt to balance their budgets.getty As colleges and universities struggle with relentless financial pressures, an increasing number are turning to faculty and staff buyouts as one way to stem their budgets’ red ink. The cumulative financial drag of stagnant or declining student enrollment, federal funding cutbacks, plummeting numbers of international students, uncertain state support, and inflated operating costs are taking a toll. Last year saw several universities roll out retirement incentives, but that trend now seems to be accelerating, with more and more institutions dangling various buyout offers before their faculty and staff as they try to adjust to higher education’s continuing economic doldrums. The incentive packages differ from institution to institution, but they are being implemented across the sector, from regional colleges to major research universities. Here’s a sample of the offers that have been made in just the past few months.Last month, Syracuse University announced a buy-out for about 175 of its faculty members as an incentive for them to take retirement. That offer came against the backdrop of the university’s earlier decision to pause or close 93 academic programs following an academic portfolio review.Faculty are eligible for a buyout if they have 35 or more years of service at the university or if their primary appointment is associated with a program that’s been identified for closure, is suffering sustained low enrollment, or has experienced a significant enrollment decline over the past several years.Under the terms of the plan, which is more generous than that offered by most schools, faculty who volunteer to retire would receive a lump-sum payment of two weeks of pay for every year of credited service, up to a maximum of 100% of their current base salary; a supplemental payment of $500 per year of credited service, up to a maximum of $15,000; and access to retiree benefits, like the institution’s retiree health plan, tuition assistance, and other post-retirement resources.MORE FOR YOUFacing a budget deficit that’s grown to at least $48 million, The New School plans to lay off about 15% of its staff and faculty, according to the New School Free Press. The anticipated layoffs would come in addition to a roughly 7% reduction in the institution’s workforce already achieved through buyouts offered in the past several months. Additional voluntary separations are expected to occur through an expansion of the buyout program in the future. At the University of Texas at Arlington, 63 faculty members and 146 staff members from 96 departments have accepted a buyout that was announced in January by UTA President Jennifer Cowley, who said it would be offered to save money as the university faced “significant shifts in federal funding and policy." According to the UTA Shorthorn, the campus newspaper, 234 employees applied for the “voluntary separation program,” under which they could receive a payout equal to 9 or 12 month base salary along with compensation for accrued, unused vacation time. The University of North Texas has approved requests by 40 faculty members to receive voluntary buyouts, part of its attempt to close a projected $45 million budget gap. The buyouts are expected to save an estimated $4.7 million.Tenured faculty, administrators with tenure, and some non-tenure-track faculty are eligible for the offer if they have at least 15 continuous years of service at UNT. The incentive consists of one year of base pay for those with tenure and six months of pay for those without tenure. The Texas Tribune reported that the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences had the most buyouts with 15; followed by the College of Engineering, with six; the College of Information and the College of Public Affairs and Health Sciences with four each; and the College of Music with three.Recently, East Carolina University officials indicated they will discontinue 44 undergraduate and graduate programs as they try to eliminate about $25 million in expenses. ECU administrators have said the program cutbacks will not require layoffs; instead, they are working “with eligible faculty through the university’s existing faculty realignment incentive program to support them in a mutually agreeable transition.”Rowan University announced a voluntary separation incentive in March. Facing a projected $16.5 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2026, Rowan President Ali Houshmand wrote the campus community that "Rowan will introduce a voluntary separation program for eligible employees as part of a thoughtful, forward-looking approach to institutional stewardship. The goal of this program is to support long-term planning and ensure that we continue to make strategic investments while maintaining the flexibility to grow and adapt.” Permanent employees who are in positions represented by the American Federation of Teachers or who are in a managerial position and have at least ten years of permanent Rowan service are eligible for the deal, which provides a buyout that increases in size commensurate with the length of employment at the university.Also in New Jersey, Stockton University, a public institution in Galloway Township, announced last week that it would offer voluntary buyouts to members of the AFT and some university managers. The University has yet to indicate how many employees might be eligible for the incentive, the terms of which have not been publicly disclosed. As a cost-reduction strategy, large-scale buy-outs are a mixed bag. Whatever savings they achieve are typically deferred until after all the incentives are paid out, making it difficult for cash-strapped schools to afford them. In addition, the total savings are almost always reduced — sometimes considerably — by the need to hire replacement faculty and staff to take over the duties of the departing personnel. Finally, institutions cannot pick and choose which eligible employees take the offer, resulting in the potential exit of faculty and staff that schools do not want to lose because of their prominence as scholars and teachers or their senior leadership in key positions. Despite those possible drawbacks, look for more college and universities to introduce retirement incentives — usually as a consequence of academic program closures — as they try to bring their operating expenses in line with plunging revenues.