The Optional Retirement Program (“ORP”) Contributions Controversy

During the summer of 2009, when faculty were engaged in summer teaching and research projects, the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL) quietly cut the rate at which employer contributions to retirement funds passed through to employee (faculty) retirement accounts. The reduction, from 6.95% to 5.76%, was the largest in the history of the ORP (a reduction of 18% ). TRSL has attempted to explain this reduction with respect to certain actuarial assumptions but continues to use the monies taken from ORP participants to resolve the unfunded liability of the Teachers’ Retirement Plan, from which ORP participants receive no benefits. The LSU Faculty Senate has begun an all-out campaign against this practice, which dates from the time of Huey Long and which is deleterious to and disrespectful of higher-education professionals. Below are links to several key documents related to this continuing dispute.