Retirements came unexpectedly to Eastern’s four colleges who are now working to fill vacant positions.

John Willems, the chair of the School of Business, said business professor Dean Elmuti found that retiring this past May was more beneficial than in May 2015.

Elmuti had planned to work this school year, but after investigating and finding that he would lose money, he chose to retire, Willems said.

Elmuti’s retirement was the result of difference in retirement income.

“He said he was given two figures on what he would make this year versus next year,” said Willems.

He said the two figures Elmuti received did not make sense, and Elmuti would be making less if he retired in 2015.

The School of Business, which consists of about 45 faculty members, also lost professor Mike Wilson to retirement in May.

Willems said for the past five years that number has been fairly stable, but the school looks to add one more member.

“We are not authorized to fill Elmuti’s positions,” Willems said. “We were authorized to fill one other position, so I am pleased as punch that we were able to fill one position this year.”

Education and Professional Studies lost five members while the College of Sciences lost 12 members to retirement.

The College of Arts and Humanities also experienced faculty retirements.

The department of communications studies has lost five people to retirement, while the English department has lost nine to retirement in the last two years, and will lose two more this academic year.

The English department also lost six more faculty members who resigned in the last three years. The department has not been able to fill vacant positions.

Dana Ringuette, the English department chair, said classes have been canceled because of low enrollment.

“We have not been able to offer certain electives, but we been able to offer required courses,” he said.

He added that despite enrollment difficulties the English department has been able to carry forward.

“It is not a crisis, but it is an area of concern,” Ringuette said. “We have been able to offer the same level of instruction as we have in the past despite lower enrollments and fiscal difficulties.”

Diana Jackman, the dean of College of Education and Professional Studies, said the college wants to focus on making sure classes are not over crowded.

She said they monitor class enrollments carefully and have been able to cover all the classes that are needed.

She also said the college is currently looking for two faculty members.

Willems said the average business class size over the last five years has only increased by one student per class.

Harold Ornes, the dean of the College of Sciences, said the decline in enrollment has helped the college fill teaching positions.

“We had 17 retire or resign out of 174 faculty in the COS,” he said. “Since our enrollments have been declining, we are not automatically hiring one new person to replace every one person that leaves.”

Ornes said seven faculty members were hired this fall.

The department of communication studies has been able to fill two of its five vacant positions, and it has two other positions expected to be filled.

Stephen King, the chair of the department of communication studies, said the department was not greatly affected.

“We lost good people but also hired good people, so there is not a significant reduction to the staff,” he said.

Bob Shaughnessy can be reached at 581-2812 or rrshaughnessy@eiu.edu