The school is also dipping into reserve funding. Sounds serious.
KGW8 News reports:
Portland State University enacts hiring freeze amid falling enrollmentIn a letter sent to students and staff Thursday, Portland State University Interim President Stephen Percy announced the school will immediately enact a hiring freeze and will spend $12 million of its reserve funding.Percy said the school’s enrollment fell more than 4.5 percent this academic year from 2018-2019, and is expected to continue declining for the next couple of years.The school will also spend up to $12 million of its reserves in the next fiscal year — a large portion of the school’s overall $73 million in endowment as of 2017.The hiring freeze will include all vacant education and general fund positions that “are not in the final stages of the hiring process,” while some positions will be exempt on a case-by-case basis.”We continue to explore all mechanisms for reducing expenditures and costs. However, with over 80 percent of the institution’s budget in personnel, our most effective immediate action is to freeze vacant positions and fill them only after careful consideration of how they meet the strategic priorities of the university and are affordable within a reduced budget,” Percy wrote.
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