What about a grant from an external source? If you signed a contract with an external funder that the grant would be used for a specific source, is there a legal issue if the university takes it?
Well the university gets its usual cut and maybe they can ask for a little more but if they decide to take all of it then it is your responsibility (under penalty of committing fraud if you don't) to inform the external source that the university is not creating an environment that allows your research (that they are funding) and its up to them to decide if they want to cancel the grant or donate the money out of their own free will to the university. Do not under any circumstances be the blame guy and keep the external funder always in the loop saying what changes at your university and if you can "complete" the project as stipulated in the contract you signed with that eternal source.
No idea if this is true or not, but I don't like what I hear from NYU. They are a bit different than most universities (relatively low endowment/high reliance on tuition), so I imagine that they worry about a drop in revenue if students cannot (or don't want) to come back. But they should be robust enough not to freeze hiring so quickly. My own institution is less dependent on tuition, but I would imagine that it also is generally less resilient than NYU overall. Ugh.