Why does the hiring freeze damage colleges and universities the most?

Amorphous Funk has a good post on why the hiring freeze hurts colleges and universities the most. In brief it's because this is the only time of year that colleges do their interviewing and hiring of instructors and professors. Applicants will back out of the process if they learn that the decision is being made by a non-educator, bureaucrat. And if the decision is delayed too long, there is no opportunity to catch up till next year.