The University of Rhode Island announced a hiring freeze to prevent exceeding a state-imposed limit on the number of full-time employees that some are advocating against on Jan. 20.
The hiring freeze applies to both full-time and part-time employees and is expected to remain in place until the end of the fiscal year on June 30, according to Vice President for Human Resources Becky Hill. This restriction could temporarily affect hiring across faculty and staff positions causing position changes and a lack of administration in academic departments.
The decision was not driven by financial strain within the university, according to Hill.
“The hiring freeze is anticipated to last through the end of this fiscal year and it is due to the fact that we’ve had a lot of growth at URI in our enrollment and investments in URI, which is amazing,” Hill said.
The freeze does not pose any threats to current employee jobs, according to Hill.
“Unlike many universities that have hiring freezes in place due to budgetary constraints, we are not in a hiring freeze because of any budgetary constraints,” Hill said.
The hiring freeze is tied to the state’s full-time equivalent cap which limits the number of employees state agencies can hire, according to Jay Walsh, director of the URI chapter of the American Association of University Professors. The cap is a common budgeting tool used across state agencies.
“The cap exists so that the Department of Corrections doesn’t just go and hire dozens of more people and then put the state over budget,” Hill said.
The cap is particularly restrictive for URI because the university relies far less on state funding than many other public institutions, according to Walsh. Tuition and grants cover approximately 90% of URI’s budget and the other 10% is from state allocations.
“If the university is going to grow because student enrollment grows [and] the number of programs grow, then the university should be able to add additional staff to be able to serve students,” Walsh said.
University leaders are actively advocating for relief from the cap. One potential solution could come through the governor’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, according to Hill.
“Our goal right now is to advocate strongly for an increase to the cap,” Hill said. “One positive result of that advocacy was that the governor actually included in his fiscal year 2027 proposal to eliminate the cap for URI.”
If approved by the Rhode Island General Assembly, the proposal would allow the university to resume regular hiring practices, according to Walsh. Legislative approval is the key next step.
URI is financially positioned to manage its workforce independently if the cap is lifted, according to Walsh.
“Rhode Island is one of the one states that has the least amount of state allocation to its land grant institution compared to other states,” Walsh said. “And considering that URI is so far behind other states in terms of allocation, they do a good job.”
