When Temple announced travel restrictions and a hiring freeze in response to declining state revenues last month, the university was not alone.


Across the nation, colleges and universities are reacting to the cascading effects of the global economic downturn by announcing a wide variety of cost-cutting measures, including spending limits, construction delays, hiring freezes, travel limits, budget cuts and more.


In Pennsylvania, the commonwealth's four state-related universities (Lincoln, Penn State, Pittsburgh and Temple) and 14 universities in the State System of Higher Education are preparing for the loss of at least 4.25 percent from their state appropriations for 2008-09. Penn State has responded with freezes, delays or reductions in areas such as hiring, building, travel, department expenses and equipment purchases. Other state and state-related institutions are taking similar steps.


Elsewhere, colleges and universities of all types — large and small, state and private, urban and rural, four-year and two-year, religiously affiliated and non-denominational — are facing the same challenges making the same difficult decisions. A survey published by the Chronicle of Higher Education (“How the Economic Downturn is Affecting Colleges: A Sampling,” Nov. 28, 2008) hints at the scale and breadth of institutional responses.


Among the 33 institutions sampled by the Chronicle, almost a third have instituted both hiring freezes and travel restrictions, including Beloit College, The Citadel, Clemson University, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Hawaii system, Middlebury College, and the University of New Mexico. Construction delays and freezes, are other cost-cutting measures reported at about half of the institutions in the Chronicle's survey. Other less common responses around the nation include furloughs, the termination of contracts with adjunct faculty members and, in the case of the University of Hawaii system, turning off air conditioning at night and on weekends.