A faculty buyout option was offered to tenured and tenure-track faculty with a minimum of five years of service during Thursday’s University Budget Committee meeting, creating a stronger incentive to retire and more room to rehire lecturers through the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program. 

The move is intended to address the university’s budget deficit and encourage eligible faculty to resign voluntarily, as stated in the program overview. 

Prior to the announcement, tenured faculty needed to have a minimum of 10 years of service to the SFSU in order to be eligible for the VSIP in the 2024-25 Academic Year. With the slashing of the required minimum and up to  $110,000 in severance pay, SFSU is creating stronger motivation for faculty to leave. 

Tenured and tenure-track faculty who are interested in retiring now have the option to, either at the end of this year or after the Spring 2026 semester. According to Ingrid Williams, the senior associate vice president in human resources and primary contact for the VSIP, there is $7 million in reserves set aside for the VSIP. The university is expecting around 60-75 faculty taking up the offer.

Departments that are not eligible for the VSIP include the physical therapy graduate program, mathematics, race and resistance studies, computer science, American Indian studies, philosophy, the School of Music, public health, special education, School of Social Work, School of Nursing and family, interiors, nutrition & apparel. Exclusions were determined primarily “because the university needs to maintain business continuity,” and based on tenure density, according to Williams. 

“We need to be able to comply with accreditation and licensure requirements, and for that reason, these particular departments have been excluded,” Williams said. 

Michael Scott, vice-provost for academic resources, added that the departments that are ineligible for the VSIP are ones where maintaining tenure density is “crucial.” 

“We have a very difficult time keeping computer science faculty around, we are constantly challenged with social work and physical therapy,” Scott said. “Nursing is the poster child of the problem. We have very few tenure-tenant nursing faculty and many, many lecturers.” 

Amy Sueyoshi, provost and vice president of academic affairs, said that the “primary determiner” for selecting these departments were based on tenure density and current enrollment numbers. 

“We took into account things like accreditation, we also thought about departments that actually teach a lot of GE [Units],” Sueyoshi said. “But we know that we need to offer fewer GE classes because we have fewer overall students.” 

The UBC ultimately decided on eligible departments that have 65% or more tenure density, whereas the California State University system’s funding model says ideal tenure density is around 54%, according to Sueyoshi. 

During the meeting, faculty members in attendance raised questions about tenure density across departments and class options.

Ryan Howell, chair of the psychology department, was concerned about commitments to students in the Fall 2026 semester in the case that departments where many tenure-track faculty were eligible for VSIP. 

“In psychology, we had a 55% tenure density for years, we have the largest major. We had our lecture faculty budget cut by over 50% and that’s the primary reason our tenure density is up,” Howell said. “Probably around half of the faculty in psychology would be eligible. If the reason that our tenure density is so high is because of lecturer faculty cuts to psychology, if a lot of people retire, what’s the plan to serve the students in the fall of next year?” 

Sueyoshi added that the VSIP aims to make room for hiring lecturers. 

“Our aim is to lower tenure density so that we can hire lecturers for classes that students need in high-demand programs,” Sueyoshi said. “For faculty who take advantage of VSIP in departments with high demand, lecturers will be hired for classes that need to be taught.”

SFSU’s enrollment has dwindled in recent years due to the ongoing budget crisis, faculty layoffs and class cuts. Mahoney’s response is that the university needs change. 

“We’re replacing very few faculty… so departments are already running into issues where their student enrollment no longer supports the curriculum they used to have,” Mahoney said. “Curriculum reform has to accompany what’s already been happening, and now will just happen through the VSIP.” 

Mahoney’s sentiment during the meeting was the same as during the last UBC meeting. The university needs to change.

“There’s only one thing I can guarantee right now — pretty much everything has to change,” Mahoney said. “We have to restructure ourselves.”