ST. LOUIS (AP) – A University of Missouri campus near the site of the fatal Ferguson police shooting has announced a hiring freeze for faculty and staff in response to what administrators call an unexpected enrollment drop by students worried about their safety.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis announced the move Wednesday in a campus-wide email from Chancellor Tom George. He cited a $2 million budget shortfall created by “widespread anxiety about the region in general and North (St. Louis) County in particular.”

School spokesman Bob Samples says the campus expects to enroll 600 fewer students in the upcoming spring semester compared to spring 2014.

He attributed the drop to a combination of returning students declining to again register for classes and admitted students not actually enrolling for the first time.