Flexible hiring freeze due to the Coronavirus pandemic

[the-tenure-track-prof]

I am a tenure track assistant professor at a public university. Today our university made few announcements about the ongoing response of the university to the public health crisis. One measure that the administration announced is flexible hiring freeze which was explained as "the university will continue to hire but need to carefully review all vacancies and suspend when possible."

As a tenure track faculty I`ve received a while ago my reappointment letter for next year and have my classes scheduled for the fall semester. My department also needs more faculty, not less to manage the big class size that we have. Anyone with more experience than I am knows what flexible hiring freeze practically means?

Thanks,

[sprout]

I would expect that it applies to new staff hires and new tenure lines, not to reappointment of existing tenure-track faculty.

[polly_mer]

I would expect that it applies to new staff hires and new tenure lines, not to reappointment of existing tenure-track faculty.

Agreed.

My bet is that the administrators want the flexibility to postpone/cancel certain job ads while still hiring in places that are hard to get faculty if someone great is in the pool. 

Yes, it's nice to have smaller class sizes in some areas, but it's vital to keep certain programs in compliance with accreditation.  It's also vital to be able to offer certain classes to keep up enrollment, like CS and nursing where the number of open slots nationwide is often larger than the number of qualified people seeking academic positions.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Thanks. We had an interview with a candidate last semester and the department offered him/her a tenure track faculty position. That was in October. This week I`ve learned that the department didn't send the letter of job offer yet. The department needs one more faculty member. With the new flexible hiring freeze, is there a risk that the department would not send the job offer letter?

[polly_mer]

Thanks. We had an interview with a candidate last semester and the department offered him/her a tenure track faculty position. That was in October. This week I`ve learned that the department didn't send the letter of job offer yet. The department needs one more faculty member. With the new flexible hiring freeze, is there a risk that the department would not send the job offer letter?

Yes.  There's a reason that letter wasn't sent at any point in the last six months and it's even less likely that letter will be sent this month if someone has been purposely sitting on it for this long.

[Vkw10]

Flexible hiring freeze means 90% chance any given position will be frozen. Focus will be on positions required to comply with external mandates, required to continue a program that brings in cash, or virtually impossible to fill.

I'm in social sciences. None of our social science positions will be filled this year. Class size caps will be increased. Staff in our college will be expected to continue covering for vacant positions.

The equity & access position will be filled due to compliance reporting.  Respiratory science position will be filled if we can lure a candidate. Engineers with transferable grants might be hired, but no guarantees.