Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- Brown University says it is imposing a hiring freeze for staff and administrators through January in response to the nation's financial crisis. The Ivy League school says it also will review its spending to determine which renovations and new building construction can be delayed.

The university is in the middle of the most ambitious expansion in its 244-year history, adding 100 new faculty and buying and constructing new buildings on its College Hill campus as well as in downtown Providence, a $400 million effort called the Plan for Academic Enrichment. In addition, Brown has aggressively increased its endowment, which in March stood at $2.6 billion.

Now the university will move more cautiously on such expansions, according to Brown President Ruth Simmons.

Proposed faculty appointments also will be scrutinized and that other organizational changes may occur "to achieve efficiencies and enable the reallocation of resources to student support and academic programs," according to a university news release.

Simmons announced the measures earlier this week, saying the school was facing an "unprecedented level of uncertainty" about the state of the economy.

Other colleges and universities have taken similar steps, including fellow Ivy League school Cornell.

Recognizing that many parents are also struggling with the effects of the sagging economy and stock market, Brown's financial aid office announced late last month that it would allow students with unpaid balances to register for the spring semester.

-- The Associated Press and staff reports

 Tags  Brown University economy hiring freeze

Comments

Muffy said:

Translation: Don't even THINK about taxing us.

If you were to line up all of the Brown applicants with cash in hand who weren't accepted, they would probably stretch all the way to Harvard. Ivy League applications are at an all-time high.

Everybody knows that in this economy the very wealthy are not cutting back on their Grey Poupon, nor on their education. You'll not hear any corporate Dad tell Muffy that he will have to send her to RIC instead of Brown because of a downtick in the value of her trust fund.

Brown University was founded with funds derived from the slave trade. Is it any wonder that today that same institution turns the screws on blue-collar wage slaves?

Link | November 8, 2008 8:15 AM
Report Abuse

---

Leave a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish.

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.