Austin, Tex. — The new chancellor of the University of Texas system announced today a partial statewide hiring freeze for non-faculty positions and proposed that salaries for senior executives like himself also be frozen.

The hiring freeze, which takes effect immediately, is expected to last through August 2010. It will allow the presidents of the system’s 15 academic and health institutions to decide which positions should be frozen and which are critical to the campus’s functions.

“I am not dictating to them what positions to fill — only that the hiring decisions be carefully scrutinized at the appropriate level of the institution,” said the chancellor, Francisco G. Cigarroa.

He said that after consulting with senior system and campus officials, he decided to recommend the salary cap for top executives at the 15 campuses and the system office.

“The leadership of the UT system and its institutions are keenly sensitive to the current economic climate, which has touched every corner of our great state and nation,” Dr. Cigarroa said. “Just as Texans are tightening their belts, so must we.”

The steps that Texas is taking aren’t unusual today. The flagship universities in several other states are carrying out similar measures to deal with their budget woes. But Texas is generally considered to be a well-off state whose universities have been able to hire away faculty members from struggling states, so today’s announcement is another indication of just how widespread the nation’s higher-education budget problems have become. —Katherine Mangan