By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- Duke University is likely to have to lay off some staff as it continues work on cutting its budget by $125 million over three years.

"We remain optimistic that we can avoid the large-scale reductions we've seen at our peer institutions," said Kyle Cavanaugh, the university's vice president of human resources. "But layoffs on a smaller, more localized basis are a realistic possibility, as they have been throughout this [budget reduction] process.

"When we began working on this, we certainly knew we probably would have some [layoffs], and that has not changed."

To trim its spending, Duke has initiated a number of initiatives designed to reduce its payroll cost, the single biggest item in the budget. Administrators are waiting to hear about the results of Duke's second universitywide early retirement buyout initiative, this time to nearly 200 monthly salaried employees who have met a number of criteria.

But no matter how many accept the offer, some layoffs are likely.

In the spring, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask III announced that the university needed to eliminate about 1,000 jobs over two years to meet its budget-cutting goals. Duke estimates that through a combination of buyouts, not filling vacant jobs and a reduction in overtime payments, it so far has eliminated approximately the equivalent of 400 full-time positions.

University officials estimate that the personnel reductions so far have saved around $15 million.

Universitywide efforts, however, are drawing to a close, Cavanaugh said, "but we still have to reduce the work force, and that means it's not likely we're going to be able to avoid layoffs completely."

Those layoffs, he explained, would be decided on a localized, unit-by-unit basis. "Each unit will go through a combination of different strategies in a decentralized process, assessing whether to fill positions or not," Cavanaugh explained.

The salaried employees who have received buyout offers have until Dec. 8 to respond. The previous early retirement incentive package was offered over the summer to biweekly salaried employees. Of the 825 workers who were eligible for that initial buyout, 294, or around 35 percent, accepted.

Cavanaugh said that so far, somewhere around 10 percent of those who received the new offer have expressed interest in the package. Human Resources has been holding information sessions over the last month to inform eligible employees interested in the package.

"What has helped both of these programs is that the employees who take them are immediately eligible for retiree health insurance," Cavanaugh said. "That's not traditionally part of a retirement package."