URBANA – Voluntary faculty and staff reduction programs and tuition for the next school year at the University of Illinois are on the agenda for a board of trustees committee meeting today.

The audit and budget committee meets at 2 p.m. at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, 1205 W. Clark St., U.

There will be a presentation on tuition but no committee vote, said UI spokesman Tom Hardy. UI President Michael Hogan told the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce a month ago that the UI is committed to holding down tuition after last year's 9.5 percent increase.

Also on the committee's agenda are the voluntary faculty and staff reduction programs that went into effect in 2010, at the Urbana campus only. The offers have all passed their deadlines.

Some 483 employees have left the UI through incentives, and the last group, 70 professors, will leave by Aug. 15.

The departures will save about $19 million a year, according to Mike Andrechak, associate provost for budgets and resource planning.

The Voluntary Retirement Program for faculty members is distinct from the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program for academic professionals and civil service employees. The offer for those employees who qualified was a one-time payment equal to half of their current annual base salary, to a maximum of $75,000.

Elyne Cole, associate provost for human resources, said Friday that the plan was a win-win for Illinois, mixing cost savings with access to the information and experience of the long-term employees, some of whom come back to hold part-time jobs, or, in the case of many emeriti professors, advise graduate students and perform research for the price of "an office, a telephone and a mailbox."

In fact, several peer institutions are considering implementing the Illinois model, she said.

Of the 483 who took the buyouts, 16.8 percent, or 81, have come back on a part-time basis, said Urbana campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler. Civil service accounts for 41 people; faculty, 15; and academic professionals, 25.

Cole said personnel is the highest cost at the UI, and the reductions "protect us against any massive budget losses down the road and allow us the flexibility of not filling positions of filling them as reduced cost."

Those who return part-time often earn lower pay than previously and don't earn vacation or sick leave, she said.

Civil service1 workers can work no more than 900 consecutive hours without taking a break.

Cole said the UI expected 200 to 300 employees to take advantage of the offer and was pleasantly surprised at almost double that number.

She said that the UI decided to avoid involuntary layoffs because, as the county's largest employer, it could have a devastating effect on the local economy.

The voluntary nature also obviated the need to implement "bumping rights" to displace civil service workers when a more-senior employee is laid off, she said.

"We were pleased that people were able to select themselves," Cole said.