Clemson seeks to cut costs with hundreds of voluntary buyouts

Clemson University is offering voluntary buyout packages to 452 full-time employees in an effort to further shrink spending.

The 6,000-employee university has sought to cut costs the past couple of years as expenses grew faster than revenues.

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The buyout offers, announced Thursday, went out to employees who are at least 59½ years old or eligible for full pension benefits in South Carolina’s retirement system as of June 30.

Employees have 45 days to consider the offer and seven days to back out if they change their mind. Those who accept will receive a lump sum payment equal to nine months of base pay.

The program is part of a deep dive by the university into how and where it invests its resources “to plan for the future and identify opportunities to strategically invest in its mission.”

If no employees accept the offer, the university has no plans for mandatory layoffs. And the school has no target number of buyouts it needs to hit, said Clemson spokesman Joe Galbraith.

Even before the buyout announcement, Clemson’s finances were starting to look up from earlier projections.

The Upstate university ended the fiscal year June 30 with modest revenue growth — up nearly 3% to $1.76 billion — and a 0.3% reduction in expenses.

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By comparison, school year expenses rose about 9% between the graduating classes of 2024 and 2025. Revenues were up just 5%, according to the college’s annual financial report.

The school, in an Oct. 15 statement, credited the improvement to disciplined expense management and revenue growth, including a 9.5% increase in funding from taxpayers included in the state budget and a 16.3% increase in gifts and grants.

“Clemson is in a strong financial position giving us the ability to invest in the people and priorities to continue moving our University forward,” newly minted President Ben Ayers said in the statement. “That strength has been built through thoughtful planning and responsible stewardship across Clemson. We’re well-positioned to invest in those areas that strengthen the student experience, advance our research and serve South Carolina.”

Clemson’s financial chief first issued warnings over the less-than-stellar revenue numbers in January 2025. At that time, the school asked faculty to cut back on hiring, travel and any expenses not deemed “mission-critical” in an effort to save between $63 and $73 million as the school prepared to take on more construction debt.

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Chief Financial Officer Rick Petillo repeated those warnings in May of this year.

In response, Clemson’s governing board directed college leadership to come up with a plan to cut costs and focus spending on programs where the school could get the most bang for its buck, without raising tuition.

Trustees wanted to prevent a trend, especially as higher education experts warn about a pending “enrollment cliff” due to a declining national birth rate that has colleges competing over a shrinking pool of potential students.

“We’ve been saying, over and over again, get in front of it, get in front of it, get in front of it,” former Gov. Nikki Haley, who sits on the governing board of her alma mater, said at the time. “We need real solutions. And it’s okay if we have to hurt for a little bit, because if you don’t hurt a little bit now, you’ll hurt a lot later.”