UI ag dean seeks to budget for future

Mon., Feb. 14, 2005

Associated Press

UI works on retirement plan

MOSCOW, Idaho – The University of Idaho is developing a plan that will allow professors to ease into retirement within three years.

The phase-to-retirement plan has been in the works for more than a year, and could take effect in April. Employees must register for the program by March 1.

The plan would gradually reduce the percentage of a tenured employee's salary, reducing it from 75 percent their first year to 60 percent the following two. Professors would work half-time but not be paid a full salary for the amount of time they worked.

Tenured employees between the ages of 57 and 65 would qualify for the program. Once entered in the plan, employees would forfeit tenures and not be eligible for sabbatical.

Retirees are not guaranteed health and life insurance benefits; the university is free to cut them later.

President Tim White and the state Board of Education must approve the plan.

Associated Press

MOSCOW, Idaho – The new dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Idaho is working with a scant budget to keep alive a program that serves farmers, students, industry officials and others involved in agriculture.

“We need to develop a priority plan of where we need to be in five to eight years,” said John Hammel, 53. “We’re going to put our resources where we need to be and transition into it over time.”

Hammel was promoted to dean of Idaho’s agriculture college after stepping in as interim dean last year. He was formerly the associate dean.

The college’s estimated operating resources in fiscal 2005 are $69.4 million, which includes grants and contracts from private, state and federal sources.

The operating budget for the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University, about 10 miles east of Moscow, is about $111 million. That college also is in the process of selecting a dean to replace its recently retired head.

The Idaho college has about 430 full-time positions involved in research, extension and teaching.

Washington State University employs about 1,900 people in those fields.

Hammel may decide other programs at the college are more important than funding the 60 still vacant positions. He is working with many advisers to stretch the budget to fill roles the public relies on.

“We have to live within the budget we have and we also have to provide ourselves with the flexibility to deal with those issues and problems that are important,” Hammel says. “Our job is to be the research arm of the agricultural and life sciences within the state of Idaho. We should be providing unbiased science-based data that can then be … extended on out to the public.”

While the college of agriculture deals with crops and livestock, it also handles food, consumer and family sciences, microbiology and biochemistry research.

The college supports more than 140 statewide commodities including wheat, potatoes and seed crops.

UI ag dean seeks to budget for future

Troubled former Yakima officer coached and taught in Richland schools before killings

Stroke, hemorrhage, sepsis: Idaho doctors detail ways abortion ban risks patients’ health

Judge rules Bryan Kohberger’s defense team can continue juror survey in murder case