Overview 

“Phased retirement” is a plan under which a Principal or Participating faculty member works a reduced teaching load for reduced salary for one or more years immediately prior to retirement. 

Policy effective date:

This policy is effective for phased retirement starting in the Fall 2025 semester.  

The first commencement date considered for eligibility is the start of the Fall 2025 semester.

Eligibility:

Any Principal faculty member or Senior Teaching Professor whose age is at least 62 as of the commencement date of the phased retirement and who has completed at least 10 years of service at Xavier University as of the commencement date of phased retirement is eligible to apply for phased retirement.

Years of service refers to years of service in a full-time faculty role and/or administrative role. Years of service include all completed years of service as Principal, Participating, and Visiting faculty.

Approval

Applications for phased retirement are subject to the recommendation of the faculty member’s chair or school director, the faculty member’s dean, and the approval of the provost. An application may not be approved for any reason, including availability of funds to cover the phased retirement.

Applications must be received by the dean by December 15.

Phased retirement may not be undertaken by faculty who take a thirty-year sabbatical.

The faculty member must meet with Human Resources and discuss terms, benefits, and other retirement options prior to the dean’s recommendation.

Length of phase retirement:

The term of phased retirement is at least one and no more than four semesters. The length of each faculty member’s phased retirement is to be agreed upon by the faculty member, the chair/school director, the dean, and the provost.  

Faculty who have entered phased retirement may choose to shorten their length of phased retirement. Faculty may lengthen their phased retirement to a maximum of four semesters with provost approval.

The faculty member will retire immediately after the term of the phased retirement.

Workload and compensation during phased retirement:

Faculty in phased retirement will be compensated with salary according to the following teaching schedule. Faculty who apply for phased retirement will propose credit hours of teaching per semester for the proposed length of phased retirement (one, two, three, or four semesters in total). The proposal must be recommended by the chair/school director and dean and approved by the provost. 

• 12 credits of teaching across two semesters (Fall and Spring of an academic year): 80% of annual salary
• 9 credits of teaching across two semesters (Fall and Spring of an academic year): 60% of annual salary
• 6 credits of teaching across two semesters (Fall and Spring of an academic year): 40% of annual salary
• 6 credits of teaching in one semester: 80% of half of annual salary
• 3 credits of teaching in one semester: 40% of half of annual salary

Faculty who teach a different number of credit hours below 12 credits will have their salaries pro-rated according to the schedule above.

Phased retirement plans may not include semesters without any credits of teaching. The final semester of teaching will be the final semester of phased retirement, after which the faculty member will retire.

Upon approval of the provost, a faculty member in phased retirement may substitute service as department chair or academic program director for teaching up to four courses per academic year. The specific number of courses is determined by the provost.

Faculty in phased retirement have no expectations for scholarship or service, except in the case of the service agreement described above.

Faculty in phased retirement may teach an overload following the normal scale, but priority for overloads will be for faculty who are not in phased retirement. following the normal scale, but priority for overloads will be for faculty who are not in phased retirement.

Faculty in phased retirement may teach in the summer, and this does not count toward their four semesters unless otherwise specified; summer salary is based on the reduced salary.

Benefits:

The elections for benefits in which faculty in phased retirement have been enrolled will be maintained until retirement. Benefit coverage and premiums will not be impacted by any changes in salary/workload due to phased retirement.

Retirement contributions will be based on the reduced salary.  

Status:

Upon entering phased retirement, faculty will continue to retain their status (e.g., Principal Faculty) as described in the Faculty Handbook, until retirement. 

After phased retirement

After retirement, a faculty member who retires under phased retirement is to be treated with all rights, privileges, and responsibilities that accrue to retired faculty.