Duke University will soon roll out an incentive plan in the hopes of convincing about 700 workers to retire.

The cost-savings measure is one of several moves the university is making to cut $125 million from its operating budget over the next three years.

Administrators announced plans for the retirement initiative at a mid-day public campus forum focusing on budget issues. While not all the plan’s specifics are yet known, officials said they hoped to target between 600 and 700 non-exempt workers at least 50 years old with at least 10 years of service to Duke.

The offer wouldn’t be available to faculty or “exempt,” or professional staff members.

Four top Duke University officials will answer questions today about the issue on the minds of so many Duke workers: budget cuts.

Of chief interest: Whether there will be layoffs and whether Duke will offer a retirement buy-out deal.

Duke recently announced plans to reduce its operating budget $125 million over the next three years.

The forum will be at noon in the Griffith Film Theater at the Bryan Center on campus.

The administrators fielding questions today will be Provost Peter Lange, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask, finance vice president Hof Milam, and Kyle Cavanaugh, the head of human resources.

As you may have read in a previous post here in Campus Notes, plenty of universities are struggling as endowments dip and budgets get tight.

But at Duke, officials don't expect to have to make budget cuts, says Tallman Trask, one of Duke's top administrators. In a question-and-answer session posted to the Duke news website, Trask said the university is in decent shape.

At least for the moment.

A snippet:

"We're not intending to impose any immediate or specific budget cuts right now. My biggest concern is about our expectations going forward. We don't currently have problems in our operating budget, but we could create problems by trying to take on more than we can afford. I think any changes will manifest themselves in our inability to do some things we wanted to do in the future."

He continued: 

"Our employee benefits will be just as generous as they were this year, and it is too early to determine salary increases for next year. I think people at Duke are more secure here than at any other place they might work."