WashU Deans sent an email to 150 faculty members asking them to consider retirement (Bri Nitsberg | Managing Photo Editor)

Tenured faculty aged 60 or older with five or more years of experience at WashU received an email on Oct. 31 asking them to consider retiring. The email was sent from the respective deans of WashU’s seven schools on the Danforth Campus. Faculty who accept the offer would receive 1.5 times their annual salary plus $43,500, according to the email obtained by Student Life.

Julie Flory, Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications, wrote in an email to Student Life that “approximately 150 Danforth Campus faculty members” received the email. The practice of offering retirement incentives for older faculty is not new, but the number of offers at once is unprecedented in recent University history. 

The email was dismissed by some professors but evoked extreme discontent among others. Some regarded the email as a common practice at universities, whereas others found the move disturbing given its breadth, and in light of recent widespread cuts to University programs.

“It was a gut punch … It was insulting,” said one professor, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of “retaliation for disputing and questioning the logic of the really extreme cuts that are being made,” and will be referred to as Professor A.

Seth Graebner, president of WashU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors and associate professor of French and of Global Studies, said that he was appalled by the email. He, however, is younger than 60 and did not receive it.

“Doing this by mass mailing to a whole demographic, the University’s most experienced teachers, fits this administration’s general contempt for faculty,” Graebner wrote in an email to Student Life. “The administration has not consulted us about the effects this plan might have on our teaching and research.”

Other professors found the email par for the course, given that it is common for universities to make retirement offers to senior faculty members. One biology professor said that they were “not seriously considering the offer” and noted that it was an optional proposal.

Barbara Schaal, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences from 2013 to 2020, said that offers are generally made by the department chairs in concordance with the deans of their respective schools. Schaal said that as dean, she had once made retirement offers to faculty in five departments, all in the natural sciences. Schaal added that the previous dean, Edward Macias, had made retirement offers to faculty only in the chemistry department. Both instances were considerably smaller-scale offers than the recent email.

Schaal said she made the offers to create space to hire more faculty in a time when there was no surplus money. She said that a “reasonable amount” of faculty chose to accept the retirement incentive.

“We didn’t want them ever to retire … It didn’t feel as if we were kicking them out,” Schaal said. “We ended up being able to do a series of years of hiring and actually increased the number [of faculty] beyond who had retired.”

Schaal added that the offer she had made was for professors aged 65 and up, and was “a little bit sweeter” than the recent offer. One emeritus professor who had taken up Schaal’s offer said that it included “two years full salary with health benefits as an incentive to retire.”

Some professors said that they found the recent proposal too low to consider, especially if they were at the younger end of the range.

“I asked myself, if I were to take [the offer], even though I’m several years shy of being able to afford full retirement, would I have to start driving an Uber in a few years to cover my expenses?” Professor A said. 

Some professors also took issue with the letter itself, saying they wished the offer had left room for further discussion.

“The form letter seemed to have been written by muskrats using AI, and I mean no insult to muskrats,” Professor A said.

Schaal emphasized that when making her proposal, she made sure to consider how it would be received.

“One of the things that I think is really important in anything like this is to see what the optics are, how people are responding to it,” Schaal said. “So you want to be careful not to do something where people get their backs up.”

Graebner said that he had not spoken to anyone considering accepting the proposal. 

“All the recipients with whom I have spoken feel insulted,” Graebner wrote. “The offer is laughably low, far too low to tempt anyone not already planning to retire within a year or two.”

Professors who were left disheartened by the offer said that they feared a crippling of WashU programs should enough professors accept. 

“Make it make sense,” Professor A said. “Especially in the wake of the many deep cuts to our resources in response to inadequate budgeting by the administration.”

Schaal said that the offers could have been financially motivated, as new hires tend to have lower salaries than those of retirees. Schaal also said that retirements can create flexibility within departments.

“You’re ultimately going to save money,” Schaal said. “Another reason to [make retirement offers] is to shuffle around the teaching duties a little bit in case you might want to hire lecturers.”

Schaal added that an offer on this scale is “unusual” for WashU.

Other professors, like Graebner and Professor A, pointed towards perceived mishandling of recent expenditures as the impetus for the offers.

“It’s hard to imagine any reason for this other than still more cutting of instructional costs to make up for financial mismanagement,” Graebner wrote.

Professors were given two potential dates for retirement should they accept the proposal — July 30 of 2026 or 2027. According to the email, interested professors must submit their acceptance by Dec. 15, 2025.