Straw in the Wind: Stanford and CSU Hiring Freezes

From the Mercury-News: Stanford announced Thursday it is instituting a hiring pause for all faculty and staff positions as the “university is anticipating that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant impact on Stanford’s financial picture.” Stanford also said a new tenure clock extension policy for the university’s untenured faculty has been instituted. Citing market volatility that’s expected to affect endowment payout that supports Stanford’s budget, Stanford provost Persis Drell has asked the university deans to pause all faculty searches. Provost Drell will permit hiring processes to continue if “discussions have taken place with the finalist about terms of the offer,” or if a formal offer has been extended to a candidate for a faculty position, but any pending offer for a staff position must be put on hold immediately...

Full story at https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/26/coronavirus-stanford-stops-all-faculty-searches-institutes-hiring-pause-due-to-covid-19/
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The Remaking the University blog reports that CSU has ordered all campuses to impose a similar hiring freeze:
http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2020/03/converging-crises-part-ii-survival-rule.html

What you are observing above is the stuff recessions are made of, in this case being played out in higher education. Each micro actor takes actions that seems prudent at the local level but which collectively make the problem worse for everyone. Federal bailouts, subsidies, stimulus programs, or whatever you want to call them, can offset such micro actions. But the money has to be there fast. When you hear about trillions soon coming to the rescue from the White House and Congress, be sure to ask "when?" Policy makers have a way of enacting measures which in fact require complex administration to deliver without thinking much about "when" and "how." It is assumed that some faceless bureaucrats somewhere will somehow carry out directives to do things they have no established mechanisms to do.

At the state level, Gov. Newsom has been very active in holding public news conferences which yours truly has been monitoring and archiving. Most of the information provided relates to health issues, not surprisingly. To the extent that budget matters have come up, the concern has been how will the legislature be able to meet in person to enact a budget on time. However, the state has to be both burning up cash while it defers receipts of cash through tax deadline delays. We'll be watching the cash statements issued monthly by the state controller. April is normally a big cash inflow month because income taxes are normally due. In fact, the practice has been to issue daily information in April on cash receipts. It is doubtful that such information will be available this April since the deadline has been moved to July. The only people who will file before the new deadline are those who are due refunds.

Here are Gov. Newsom's recent special news conferences:

or direct to https://archive.org/details/newsom3312020.


or direct to https://archive.org/details/newsom3282020.


or direct to https://archive.org/details/u.s.navyusnsmercyarrivesatportoflosangeles.


or direct to https://archive.org/details/newsom3252020.


or direct to https://archive.org/details/newsom3242020.


or direct to https://archive.org/details/newsomshutdown31920.