UT executive salary freezes in talks

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A day after the University of Texas System announces a sweeping hiring freeze, the school's board of regents meet in Austin Wednesday. The flexible freeze announced by new chancellor Dr. Francisco Cigarroa applies to all current and future vacant nonfaculty positions at the system's 15 campuses and allows institution presidents to decide locally which positions should be frozen.

"Just as Texans are tightening their belts, so must we," said Cigarroa.

Cigarroa said hires will still happen, but money has to be saved. Cigarroa and the regents discussed the details of the freeze, as well as plans to freeze senior executive salaries. The proposed executive salary freeze would include the chancellor, the 15 campus presidents, the executive vice chancellors and vice chancellors. All agreed to the plan.

"It really allows us to step back, assess every position that we're hiring within our universities and to make sure that it advances the mission of the university," said Cigarroa.

The freeze is effective until August 2010. In addition to permitting institution presidents to decide which positions should be frozen, a flexible hiring freeze also allows institutions to issue guidelines to ensure positions critical to the ongoing mission of the institution continue to be filled.

"I am not dictating to them what positions to fill, only that the hiring decisions be carefully scrutinized at the appropriate level of the institution," said Cigarroa.

Cigarroa also called for the campuses to convene task forces to review productivity and cost-containment measures. In recent weeks, the UT System took steps to reduce travel, including trimming 20 percent of systemwide meetings requiring travel.

The UT Board of Regents will meet again starting Thursday morning. Meanwhile, Yale University and University of California System have implemented similar hiring freezes. 

About The University of Texas System

The University of Texas System is one of the nation's largest higher education systems, with nine academic campuses and six health institutions. Of its annual operating budget of $11.5 billion for Fiscal Year 2009, $2.5 billion of that comes from federal, state, local and private sources.

Student enrollment exceeded 194,000 in the 2007 academic year. The UT System presents more than one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates nearly three-fourths of the state's healthcare professionals annually.

With more than 81,000 employees, the UT System is one of the largest employers in the state.