State makes strides in providing financial aid for college

Monday, March 16, 1998 | 10:03 a.m.

The Board of Regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada has re-affirmed its commitment to making the state's higher education system accessible and responsive to community needs.

The state, too, has shown a commitment to higher education in Nevada, according to Vice Chancellor Jane Nichols.

During a financial aid workshop that was part of the Regents two-day meeting in Las Vegas last week, Nichols said in the school year 1992-93 Nevada ranked last among the states in the amount of financial aid provided college students.

In 1996 it had moved up to 40th.

"Nevada had a 773.4 percent increase in (student) financial aid," Nichols said.

The federal government, through loans, continues to be the primary source of financial aid and those funds are increasing.

But, Nicholssaid, state aid also is on the rise.

The four primary sources of student aid, in order of importance, are loans, employment, scholarships and grants.

Friday the board adopted a current Strategic Directions plan, which it has done annually since 1992 -- revising the strategies as needs change.

In its latest Strategic Directions report it was noted that there has been an increase in enrollment of 56 percent at the state's colleges and universities over the past 10 years and the growth is not expected to slow down.

The number of Nevada high school graduates is projected to increase by 134 percent from 1996 to 2012.

The growth will bring sharp changes in diversity on the state's higher education campuses.

According to a report by the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education, by the year 2012 some 62 percent of Nevada high school graduates will be members of a minority group, compared to 24 percent of 1994's graduates.

The report said no western state will diversify as rapidly and substantially in the next decade as Nevada.

The 11-member board, in its Strategic Directions statement, says it will work to provide high quality education as well as to adapt to the needs of the state's increasingly diverse population.

To assure that quality goals are met, the board also adopted a set of "system performance indicators."

Board Chairman Jill Derby said the action was significant.

"It is an important step for the board to be able to measure progress," she said. "When I attend national meetings, institutions with these kinds of indicators seem to have a handle on things."

Nine performance indicators were chosen, including college continuation rate, college participation rate, diversity, affordable tuition and fees, transfer rate at community colleges, transfer rate at universities, K-16 articulation, student persistence rates and graduation rates.

Indicators also were adopted for research, graduate and professional education.

In other business, Chancellor Richard Jarvis began preparing for possible tuition and registration fee increases for 1999-2001.

He told the board an advisory committee will spend the next six weeks preparing the figures. In April, public hearings will be held in the northern and southern parts of the state. The proposal will be presented to the board for action at its May 1 meeting.

The board approved UNLV's Academic Master Plan (1998-2003) after Provost Douglas Ferraro presented an overview of the plan at an earlier committee meeting.

The plan calls for a wide variety of additional choices in academic programming and the majority of the projected growth in programs would be at the graduate level.

Since the 1993 plan was adopted, Ferraro noted, 28 new programs have been implemented and student head count increased from 19,682 to 20,272.

The latest plan's goals include becoming more student focused, hiring motivated faculty and increasing research, scholarly activity and national recognition.

Also, UNLV wants to "grow selectively, serve the region and achieve distinction."