responding with increasingly aggressive cost-cutting measures.

Faced with the prospect of sharp cuts in state support and shrinking endowments, many institutions began to trim budgets and implement hiring, promotion, construction and travel freezes last fall. Now that state budgets, endowment losses and other challenges are beginning to come into sharper focus, colleges and universities nationwide have been announcing deeper and more painful cuts, including layoffs, furloughs and the closure of programs and facilities.

Staff reductions have been reported at a wide range of institutions in the first week of February, including the University of Arizona (600 positions), Clark Atlanta University (100), Dartmouth College (60) and Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science (35 to 40).

Other institutions are forcing employees to take unpaid leave to avoid layoffs. Last week, Utah State University announced a mandatory five-day, spring-break furlough for all full and part-time employees. At Arizona State University, where 550 jobs will be eliminated, employees have been ordered to take 15 days of unpaid leave by June 30, 2009, according to an Arizona Republic report on Feb. 5.

Other recent painful cost-cutting measures reported at colleges and universities across the nation include the transfer of management of radio stations (Miami University of Ohio); university press layoffs or possible closures (the State University of New York and Utah State University, respectively); the possible termination of a big band jazz ensemble (Bowdoin College) and even the potential shuttering of an iconic art museum (Brandeis University).

Over the past several months, many other institutions have announced layoffs, cuts, and other measures. Below is a summary of measures universities have taken in response to the economic crisis:

• Boston University: With a growing demand for student aid and a falling
  
  endowment, the university’s president has announced a cost-cutting program that includes eliminating redundancy in administrative programs, a hiring freeze and elimination of raises for some administrators. Additional actions are possible.
  
• Carnegie Mellon University: University officials plan to freeze wages of its more than 4,700 employees and review all capital improvement projects at the Pittsburgh school.
  
• Colorado State University: The university’s interim president says staff cuts will be needed this year to deal with funding cuts from the state. It is too early to say how many layoffs might be necessary.
  
• Penn State: Pennsylvania State University President Graham Spanier said the university faces the possibility of layoffs and that vacant staff positions will likely remain unfilled.
  
• University of Georgia: The university has reduced the hours of its library and cut overtime for campus police, in addition to instituting hiring freezes for both faculty and employees.
  
• University of Pennsylvania: Selective hiring freezes are among the cost-cutting measures announced in December by University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann. The cost-cutting strategy, which will remain in effect for 18 months, calls for: eliminating all job reclassifications and salary adjustments; discontinuing recruitment bonuses and discretionary bonuses; filling open staff positions only if they are considered essential; and reducing the use of temporary employees.
  
• University of Washington: The Seattle-based university has taken the drastic step of closing its doors to new students who want to start classes this spring. The move is in response to budget cuts and overenrollment — both driven by the ailing economy.
  
• Virginia Commonwealth University: State budget reductions could result in up to 54 layoffs at VCU under the cost-cutting contingency plans ordered by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. A 15 percent reduction might mean the elimination of 238 positions for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins next July. As many as 54 of those jobs could come through layoffs, with the remainder through attrition or hiring delays. VCU is also anticipating increases in class size, replacing full-time faculty with adjunct instructors, and reductions in the number and variety of course offerings.
  
• Yale University: Yale has suffered a loss of about $6 billion from its endowment since June 30, 2008, creating a shortfall of $100-million in next year’s budget. Yale will cut some nonfaculty jobs and reduce the size of salary increases, among other budget measures, to make up for the substantial loss.