At the October 1999 board of trustees’ meeting, President J. Wade Gilley announced a hiring freeze on nonacademic positions throughout the university system. The freeze did not apply to faculty, computing, library, and student positions. It also did not extend to auxiliary operations hiring. Chancellors and vice presidents were instructed to review each nonacademic vacancy carefully and transfer or reassign duties to current staff members. If the duties could not be reassigned or transferred, an appeal could be made to the executive vice president for business and finance. Half the jobs frozen had been reinstated by December.