The $10,000 bonus for Ohio University’s Early Retirement Incentive Plan attracted 77 of 308 eligible employees by its April 28 deadline.

“This is two more than we’d hoped for,” said Greg Fialko, director of benefits and compensation at OU. “The goal was 75 (people).”

Of the 77 employees — 25 percent of those eligible — who accepted the incentive plan, 58 were classified employees and 19 were administrators, Fialko said.

By July 1, 72 of the employees participating in the plan will receive the bonus and retire, said Jack Jeffery, director of OU Communications and Marketing. The five other employees will accept the bonus and retire at a later date, he said.

The Early Retirement Incentive Plan was designed to reduce possible layoffs because of a proposed $18.6 million dollar budget cut, said OU Provost Kathy Krendl at an April 14 Board of Trustees meeting, according to an April 26 Post article.

Two more employees have chosen to participate in the early retirement plan since the April 28 deadline, Fialko said. OU hopes to have 150 employees — about half of the employees eligible for the retirement plan — accept it by August 2007, he said. The plan will remain open to eligible employees until August 31, 2007, and those who choose to retire between now and then would not receive the incentive bonus.

Employees are eligible to take part in the plan if they have had five years of service at age 60, 25 years of service at age 55 or thirty years of service at any age, according to the OU Human Resources Web site, www.ohio.edu/hr/benefits.