At the end of the 2025-2026 academic year, 17 professors will be departing from Muhlenberg College as part of a voluntary departure program. A few additional faculty have also accepted an offer for multi-year phased retirement over the next four years. Eligible faculty received the offer over the summer, where they had approximately six weeks to choose whether to accept or decline taking part in the program. This is a growing trend across the nation with other institutions like Duke University, Utah State University and University of Nebraska offering similar voluntary separation incentive programs in 2025.
This is not the first time a voluntary departure program has been offered at Muhlenberg; a similar package was offered during the 2020-2021 academic year with 16 faculty accepting at the time.
Faculty who are part of the 17 who opted into this year’s voluntary departure program reflected on their time at Muhlenberg, as well as shared their plans for the future beyond the College…