On the second floor of the Kirby Hall of Civil Rights, Grace Sanborn ‘25 was making phone calls, restocking blue book exam papers and designing event posters — typical tasks for the Government and Law department assistant. Sanborn, however, was not the department assistant.
Sanborn was one of several temporary workers brought in to help the department after its longtime office assistant retired in December. At least 11 offices across campus entered the new year without an office assistant after the college’s finance division, without consulting the offices, offered an early-retirement package to an untold number of staff toward the end of the fall semester.
The facilities department also saw multiple retirements among custodial staff, according to Assistant Vice President of Operations Geoff Labe. He did not share how many retired or whether staffing levels would return to their previous size, though he noted the college had “carefully” planned to “ensure continuity of positions and work.”
Most of the impacted offices are well along in the rehiring process, but some have said the timing of the offer made the transition more disruptive than necessary.
English department head Walter Wadiak said he felt “blindsided” by the timeline. The English department learned it would be losing its assistant just a few weeks before winter break, leaving little time to prepare.
The deadline to accept the offer was in mid-November, according to several faculty members. Department heads noted that administrative staffing changes and retirements often coincide with the academic year or during the summer, when disruptions to teaching operations are minimal.
“The departure of long-time employees crucial to the academic division would have been much easier to manage if it had followed the natural timeline for academic institutions,” philosophy professor Alessandro Giovannelli wrote in an email. Giovannelli currently serves as the interim head of the philosophy department, which shares a secretary with the religious studies department.
At the Williams Center for the Arts, gallery manager Rico Reyes said the short timeline compounded the disruption. The center’s assistant also retired.
“It’s not atypical that a short timeline happens,” Reyes said. “It’s just because it also happened during the holidays; it just prolonged the absence.”
Reyes added that he and Ty Furman, the director of Lafayette College’s performance series, have picked up much of the slack in the interim.
Department secretaries, assistants and coordinators often serve as central organizers within academic offices. In addition to managing correspondence, scheduling and logistics, they frequently act as the primary point of contact for students, faculty and visitors.
Many are long-tenured employees who hold extensive institutional knowledge. The English department’s assistant, Maureen Mulrooney, had worked there for more than a decade before retiring.
“We lost the person who knows who to call to get your parking ticket removed,” Wadiak said. Mulrooney did not respond to a request for comment.
Some office leaders described frustration with how the retirement incentive was implemented, characterizing it as a “top-down” decision. Faculty interviewed by The Lafayette said they were not consulted on the timeline.
“I think everyone was a little shocked that Finance made this call without consulting anyone in the academic division about whether and to what extent this would be disruptive,” Wadiak wrote.
Executive Vice President of Finance Audra Kahr said the finance division rolled out the package “in response to requests from employees.”
“Planning to implement a program like this includes disruption to departments and recognizes that departments are impacted differently when employees retire,” Kahr wrote in an email, noting that the Office of Human Resources was available to support departments. She did not answer follow-up questions.
Early retirement incentives are commonly used in corporate settings to trim labor forces or adjust compensation structures. One office head said the hiring rate for a new assistant was similar to that of the outgoing assistant.
Kahr said the college received positive feedback on the package from eligible employees, but did not divulge its terms. Several department leaders said they received an announcement describing the incentive as a $25,000 stipend alongside a payout equivalent to 25% of the retiring employee’s salary.
Kathy Haney, the now-retired coordinator for Gateway Career Center, said that staffers age 55 and over were eligible for the package. A similar staff retirement incentive in 2019 to those 60 and over.
“I was quite surprised that I qualified,” Haney said. “The day I found out about the program, I couldn’t fall asleep, I was so excited.”
Haney said she plans to spend her retirement traveling and maintaining the family dairy farm.
Grace Sanborn ‘25 is a former member of The Lafayette editorial staff.
