The U of M puts the brakes on hiring.

On an afternoon already ruined by the worst kind of freezing sleet, University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks announced a system-wide hiring freeze for all non-essential positions. Bruininks told university faculty and staff by e-mail that the “pause” in hiring is in anticipation of poor state budget projections in early December. (Perhaps not coincidentally, the state announced earlier today that revenue from income and corporate and sales taxes was $53 million less than expected in October.) Bruininks also pointed to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s spending recommendations in January as signs of the university’s financial future.

Essential positions are those with “critical health and safety functions, or those functions that ensure that the University meets its academic and fiduciary responsibilities,” and even filling those jobs will require special approval, Bruininks’ statement said. (Such approval was already being required to replace staff taking retirement incentives.) In a similar statement issued Oct. 29, Bruininks warned university students of impacts from the current global economic crisis.