As an Ohio state university manager in 1998, I elected to participate in a new, state-legislated "Alternative Retirement Program" [ARP], rather than the State Retirement program [PERS].

At that time, I personally inquired with Human Resources, my immediate supervisor, my project director and the university VP in charge of my contractual project. I was assured orally by everybody and emailed by my supervisor that "no differences would exist between the university's treatment of ARP and PERS participants."

In 2006 I took an early retirement package [ERIP] from an Ohio state university.

But when I retired early, the university had no internal policy, but decided not to contribute the money for an extra year in my ARP as they did for the PERS participants.

The judge in my case found that I should have hired a lawyer to search the Ohio Revised Code and not relied on the university officials:
"The court has found no statute or administrative code that requires the [university] to specifically inform eligible employees of all potential ramifications of an election."

Can you help me to decide if I should make the effort and expense of an appeal?

Thanks


Dr. Rick Anderson