Hiring Freeze at Kent State University

A university-wide hiring freeze is in effect at Kent State University as administrators anticipate deep cuts in state funding next year.

University President Lester Lefton announced the "restriction upon university-wide hiring" in an e-mail sent to faculty and staff Dec. 15. In the e-mail, Lefton pointed to the state's anticipated $8 billion budget shortfall in 2011 as the primary reason for stopping almost all hiring at Ohio's second-largest public university.

"Some might see this as a hiring freeze, but I view it as taking a deep breath and reassessing every search so we can conserve resources and ensure that strategic positions are filled, not just those that happen to be open today," Lefton wrote. "There will be limited exceptions, and only for positions mission-critical to the university.

"While Gov.-elect John Kasich has until March 15 to deliver his budget proposals, it is widely anticipated in the higher education community that we will see serious budget reductions," Lefton explained.

The size of Ohio's budget deficit is unclear, though many expect it will be around $8 billion. Kasich told WKSU-FM 89.7 the budget figures are not final.

"We don't really know what the numbers are yet," Kasich said.

Kent State Vice President for Human Resources Willis Walker has been asked to define a process for making exceptions to the hiring restriction.

In a meeting with media members shortly after the announcement, Lefton said officers at the Kent State University police department are the only advance exemptions to the hiring "pause."

"There will be no hiring without my personal signature on the document," Lefton said. "I really can't say how long this pause will take place. Certainly until the budget is released and maybe well beyond.

"We're not talking about 10 years from now," he added. "But at least for the next few months we're going to defer making a decision until we have a better handle on what the budget may look like."

Lefton also said the administration has calculated the impact of reductions of 10 percent to 20 percent in the state share of instruction funding and asked KSU vice presidents to identify ways of dealing responsible with cuts of such magnitude. 

Lefton said the vice presidents were not given specific instructions in planning those budget-cut scenarios.

"There instructions were to keep students first," he said. "We're not doing anything now other than putting a pause on hiring."

Whether such cuts could mean job losses is unclear.

Kara Robinson, chapter president of the American Association of University Professors at Kent State, declined to comment on the announcement.

It's also unclear what affect the hiring freeze will have on the city of Kent, which gets a sizable chunk of its income tax revenue come from its biggest employer -- the university. Lefton's announcement came after the city experienced nine straight months of income-tax revenue increases from Kent State sources.

"The amount of that increase has fluctuated up and down, but they've all been increases for the same period in 2009 versus 2010," said Dave Coffee, Kent's budget and finance director. "I do think, however, that it may still be too soon for us to accurately assess the potential impact on city of Kent income tax revenues."

Coffee said the announcement also comes as Kent experiences its fifth straight month of city wide total revenue improvement after several months during which income tax revenue had dropped.

"Our city budget for (fiscal year) 2011 was intentionally conservative with respect to our revenue forecasts, which includes income tax collections," Coffee said. "Obviously, this is something that we will want to continue to monitor."