For third straight year, state college system freezes hiring

Mark Ojakian, president of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities

The state’s largest public college system is freezing all hiring for the third year in a row.

Connecticut State Colleges & Universities President Mark Ojakian is issuing an immediate hiring freeze for the system’s 17 schools and its central office, a spokeswoman said.

The freeze is in response to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget, which would cut the state’s block grant to the college system by 4.5 percent.

“These spending control measures are necessary given our projected cut of $25 million for the next fiscal year,” Ojakian said. “We must be strategic given our limited resources.”

The college system includes the four Connecticut state regional universities, a dozen community colleges and the online Charter Oak College.

The system implemented freezes early in 2015 and 2016 in response to projected state funding cuts. The latest freeze is expected to last until at least the end of the fiscal year, the college system’s spokeswoman, Maribel La Luz, said.