Navigating Budget Changes Together: Staff Hiring Freeze

This message is sent on behalf of Dilson Rassier, provost and vice-president academic, and Martin Pochurko, vice-president, finance and administration. It has been sent to all faculty and staff.

As you may know, SFU currently faces a financial shortfall in the 2023/24 fiscal year due to lower international enrollments and increased cost pressures. We expect that SFU's budget is likely to remain tight over the next few years. 

The university is now pursuing cost containment measures to mitigate the financial shortfall. As of November 2, the university has instituted a hiring freeze applying to all new continuing positions, new temporary positions, extensions of temporary positions, backfills and all staff positions normally covered by a payroll appointment form. 

To continue prioritizing SFU’s academic mission, teaching-related positions will be excluded from the hiring freeze. This includes faculty, teaching assistants, sessional instructors, or research employees (including postdocs, research assistants and university research associates). There are also exceptions to hiring for positions that are deemed essential to the functioning of the faculties or administrative departments.

It is hoped that a hiring freeze will reduce some expenses as groups work within existing staffing to improve operational efficiencies. We are committed to minimizing the impact of budget reductions as much as possible.

The executive team is committed to reviewing the measures after we have completed our budget process in March 2024 to determine if this freeze will apply to the 2024/25 budget year.

We are also asking faculty and staff to continue to make smart financial decisions, reduce spending where possible, and explore opportunities for operational efficiencies, cross-institutional collaboration and revenue generation.

If you have any questions about the hiring freeze and its impact on your unit, please connect with your supervisor or department chair.

Information about SFU’s budget and a recording of the recent Budget Information Session can be found in the Budget Conversations section of the SFU Finance website: https://www.sfu.ca/finance/budget-conversations.html