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UA leaders froze all state-funded hiring Friday — and ordered a review of any project that uses more than $50,000 in state money — in an effort to prevent future budget cuts.

The action prohibits filling any open campus positions funded by state taxes or University of Arizona money, including tuition, according to a memo sent to the campus community by UA President Robert Shelton, Provost Meredith Hay and Senior Vice President for Business Affairs Joel Valdez.

"The severe economic downtown in our country, state and the city of Tucson has consequences radiating throughout our communities," the memo states. "Our present fiscal environment requires us to be especially diligent in using our state funds for mission-critical purposes."

The UA has roughly 14,600 full- and part-time employees, including faculty, staff and administrators, according to UA figures. The university has an estimated economic impact of more than $2.3 billion annually and is Southern Arizona's third-largest employer.

Open positions paid for through grants, endowments and other non-state dollars, such as those in the athletics department, aren't affected by the freeze, the memo said.

These positions make up a very small portion of UA hiring.

The freeze won't mean fewer classes in the spring.

It wasn't immediately clear what impact the freeze would have on campus operations and how much money it could save.

The UA has had a hiring freeze in place since February for all non-critical positions but still was able to fill some select faculty openings.

The latest announcement goes a step further, said Allison Vaillancourt, UA's vice president of human resources.

"We have been on notice for some time that we need to be very prudent in our hiring," she said. "This memo instructs us that there won't be any more."

UA officials were still working out the exact details of the hiring freeze on Friday and expected more information to be released soon, said Johnny Cruz, a university spokesman.

Calls and e-mails to Shelton went unreturned Friday evening.

On top of the hiring freeze, the memo also calls for any contracts or purchases of more than $50,000 to be reviewed by Hay or Valdez.

The review also applies to current contracts up for extensions or renewals, according to the memo.

The move follows a similar edict issued by Gov. Janet Napolitano to state agencies.

The money-saving action comes amid concerns that lawmakers may direct the UA to cut this year's budget further — after already asking it to trim close to $20 million — because of declining tax revenue.

And last week, a legislative committee held up reviewing $1 billion worth of construction projects at all three state universities amid concerns that the state might not have the money to pay for the projects.

The move by the committee, whose power has been called into question by the governor, angered UA officials, as several projects pending review wouldn't use any state tax dollars but would depend on bonds the university sold.

And if the state's economic picture weren't bad enough this year, early projections indicate that the state may have a $1 billion deficit next fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the UA is in the middle of trying to streamline its operations — possibly by cutting some academic programs — and retool several aspects of the institution after years of declining state support.

Shelton has said the overhaul he's calling for would have happened regardless of state budget cuts, and that it's intended to enhance the UA's position as one of the country's premier public research institutions.

Read the memo at uanews.org/node/21949.