Two-thirds of University faculty may be forced to postpone retirement because their retirement funds are dependent on the economy, a professor said.

Another retirement option exists, said Scott Brown, department head of Small Animal Medicine, but state legislation prevents teachers from transferring plans.

Brown said 19,000 teachers in the University System – including 1,900 from the University – are enrolled in the Optional Retirement Program, which bases retirement funds on market investments.

The recent downturn in the economy crushed many retirement accounts, leaving some faculty and staff uninsured for the future – including University President Michael Adams.

Thomas Gausvik, associate vice president for human resources, said on Friday that Adams told him in a telephone conversation Wednesday that he may be working until he is 92.

“I don’t think anyone realized this would happen, whether it’s Joe the Plumber or Alan Greenspan [chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board],” Gausvik said.

Brown is rallying for a resolution to the problems, but he said he is struggling to gain Georgia legislators’ recognition of the issue. West Virginia and Tennessee recently passed bills to resolve their retirement problems, he said.

He petitioned the University Council Benefits Committee for help at a meeting Friday.

One resolution, he said, would enable the plan’s members to transfer to a tenure- and salary-based retirement plan, the Teacher’s Retirement System.

Gausvik said under the state-controlled TRS plan, “for 30 years of service, you get 60 percent of your salary.”

Current legislation requires University faculty to make a one-time, irrevocable decision between the ORP and TRS within the first 30 days of their employment.

“The ORP was intended to provide a retirement plan equal to the TRS,” Gausvik said. “There were high expectations for the ORP as an alternative. That hypothesis has not come true. Now we have an unequal situation.”

Brown said he was advised to file a class-action lawsuit, if his petition for a bill continued to go unnoticed.

But Gausvik advised him against filing a lawsuit.

“Once you go legal, the bridges go up and everyone takes their position.”

He said Brown should keep trying to engage legislators and University officials in an active dialogue to solve ORP problems.

From a business perspective, Gausvik said Brown’s proposal is attractive because productivity among faculty who must postpone retirement may deteriorate.

Brown said, “I will be hard to find at 10 a.m. if I’m still here at 73.”

Gausvik also said University graduates would feel the effects of gouged retirement funds when searching for a job.

“Employers will not have as many openings because people are not retiring,” he said.

On other matters, the Benefits Committee discussed the administration’s postponement of gender equity and child care benefits studies due to budgetary issues.

Sarajane Love, a Law professor, said she wants to consider applying “gentle pressure” to the provost to resume these studies.