Yet Another Law School Is Offering Buyouts To Its Tenured Professors
Which law school put this offer on the table, and how many professors are expected to take it?
Today has been quite the roller coaster. Layoffs here, layoffs there, rescinded offers everywhere. It certainly looks like the legal profession has a case of the Mondays.
To cap off this day of negative news, we’ve got word of yet another law school that’s offering buyouts to its tenured faculty. Yes, tenured faculty, oh my.
Which law school put this offer on the table, and how many professors are expected to take it?
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Nova Southeastern Law, whose rank is not published because U.S. News is far too kind, sent letters to all of its full-time faculty members back in March to announce the buyouts. The school hopes to cap acceptances of the offered buyouts at 20 percent of its tenured faculty.
The school has unique eligibility standards for the buyouts, according to the Daily Business Review:
To become eligible, professors must achieve a “point” rating of 60, which combines age and years of service. For example, [Bruce] Rogow is 74 and has taught at Nova for 40 years, so his score is 114.
The faculty has until May 25 to decide whether to take the buyouts….
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Per Rogow, the faculty is “delighted” by the specifics of the offer (e.g., its inclusion of three years of health insurance). The buyout is still optional, so “it’s hard to think of it negatively,” said one law professor.
Nova Southeastern is using this as an opportunity to bring new intellectual lifeblood to its faculty, and that’s not a bad thing. If anything, the school is reacting rationally to its downturn in applicants. It’s only when the voluntary buyouts turn into not-so-voluntary buyouts and straight-up layoffs that things go sour.
Also on the bright side, the Nova Southeastern law profs who decide to take the school’s retirement offer don’t even have to travel down to the state that doubles as America’s nursing home. They’re already there.
Nova’s Law School Offering Professors Voluntary Buyouts [Daily Business Review]
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