RADFORD -- It was clear from the beginning that Radford University's high-speed restructuring of its general education program would reshape about 40 percent of what goes into a Radford education. Now it's clear that it will also change who will be doing the educating.

The Radford University Board of Visitors voted Thursday to offer more than a fourth of the university's current full-time faculty an opportunity to leave. Half of the tenured faculty is eligible.

Provost Wil Stanton said that would allow the university to reshape the faculty to fit the new core curriculum. Because the replacement faculty would be paid less, Stanton said, the move could reduce payroll by $2 million if 75 of the 98 eligible faculty members take the university's offer. That's if all 75 of those positions were filled. There's no guarantee that would happen. In fact, in the guiding principles of the program distributed to the board, the provost reserves the right to reallocate positions and make "other long-term resource realignments."

That means the administration can direct money and faculty toward new programs and toward programs with growing market potential and shift them away from programs that will play a smaller role in the university's future.

"The resources are still located where they don't need to be," Stanton said Wednesday.

The board of visitors decreed in August that the core curriculum be overhauled, that general education requirements decrease from 50 hours of study to 42 and that the whole process be completed and the new classes in place by this fall.

As recently as November, board Rector Randal Kirk was emphasizing a fall 2008 deadline. But the faculty senate judged that the new curriculum shouldn't begin any sooner than fall 2009. In fact, it couldn't.

Even if the new program were ready this fall, the university wouldn't be. About 5,000 returning students will still be taking general education classes under the old system this fall, so the old and new systems would have to operate simultaneously. Even if there were enough faculty to do that, there wouldn't be enough classrooms. The renovation of Young Hall is taking 17 classrooms off-line, forcing the university to use trailers as classrooms even without dual general education systems.

By the time the administration's core curriculum committee's proposal got to the faculty senate in November, it was too late to print a course catalog or get new classes scheduled for this fall -- and those new classes still haven't been designed or clearly defined.

Even with the new deadline, Radford is trying to redesign its general education program in about half the typical time frame.

"We've got a lot of things in process," Stanton told a board committee Wednesday. "We're moving at light speed, at warp speed -- at some speed."

The "work force transition option" -- Stanton insisted it is neither a buyout nor an early retirement program -- is also moving at some speed. The plan presented to the board doesn't say when the option will be officially offered to eligible faculty, but those whom the provost agrees to let in the program will be notified July 15. Dec. 31 has been designated the standard separation date.

Some of the money that would have gone to their salaries in the second half of the academic year will go into severance packages structured according to the professors' years of service. Some of what would have been their salaries will go to adjunct faculty brought in to teach the departing faculty's classes.

Though the proposal says this is a voluntary program, the provost can deny or delay a faculty member's participation. For example, three of the university's five geology professors are eligible for the buyout. If all three decided to leave, it's likely the provost would stagger their separation dates to give the department time to absorb the change.

Radford has done something similar at least twice before, in 2002 and 2004. Faculty members knew it was coming around again.

"At least anyone who was paying attention did," said Glen Martin, president of the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors. "I think the senior faculty do see it as a good thing. These buyouts have been attractive in the past. That's why we take them."

In the version of this "work force transition option" introduced Wednesday, only 52 tenured faculty members -- those with 20 years of service -- would have been eligible. Kirk suggested that it be extended to faculty with 15 years experience.

"People who are just waiting to qualify for this," he said, "if they want to go, we should let them go."

Kirk also said the coming core curriculum changes could make it easier to charge different prices for different degrees. That idea surfaced last year, but seemed to lose momentum when the faculty senate came out against it. The faculty feared differential pricing would lead students to study what they can afford, rather than get the education they want.

"We sell a lot of different products here," Kirk said.

There are clearly two things wrong with those products' pricing, Kirk said. Some majors -- he mentioned dance and art -- don't cost as much to teach as others. Because dancers pay the same tuition as chemistry students, dancers are subsidizing scientists' education. And some of the majors being subsidized don't need the subsidy, Kirk said. He thinks people are willing to pay more for them.

With the new core curriculum, Kirk said, it may eventually be possible to differentiate pricing not only among majors, but also among different stages of undergraduate education. A freshman's tuition may differ from a senior's.

But first the new core curriculum has to be put in place. Though there was vocal opposition to that early on, things seemed to quiet down as the process has picked up momentum. Some say that signals a growing consensus. Some say it's resignation.

"Where it is right now, not everybody loves us," Stanton said. "We're all moving in the same direction.

"The process, the progress, is continuing."