20% of Northern Illinois University Employees to Quit Due to Pension Law Change

The Daily Chronicle reports on pension law changes and Northern Illinois University (NIU):

at NIU, it’s been reported that as many as 800 employees, or 20 percent, are suddenly heading for the exits. Without even concentrating, I personally can think of about 10 people leaving. Sure, some faculty members might come back to teach on an ad hoc basis, but many won’t and very few staff will return.

Ask anybody who works in or around NIU. Like a particularly bad virus, everyone knows someone who is retiring all of a sudden, even though they weren’t planning to retire right away.

One might say that with declining student enrollment (a serious but eventually fixable problem) and given that most soon-to-be retirees are older and probably command higher salaries, shedding so many people is a sad but short chapter in the university’s history.

Economics changes behavior.