Where I Stand — Jim Gibson: A new college is needed

Sunday, Aug. 22, 1999 | 9:32 a.m.

Editor's note: In August Where I Stand is written by guest columnists. Today's guest is Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson. Elected two years ago, Gibson has worked to attract quality residential developments, a diversified economy, and downtown redevelopment -- all while maintaining small-town values in the country's fastest-growing city. He writes of the need for establishing a state college in Henderson.

EDUCATION IS critical to the future of our state and to the future of Southern Nevada, but we have a major challenge to meet. We cannot put our children in college if we do not have room for them, nor can we prepare them for college if we are unable to meet the growing demand for qualified teachers to teach them.

Nevada's high school graduating class is the fastest growing and most rapidly diversifying in the United States. By the year 2010, estimates for college participation rate increases will require the current education system capacity to grow between 49 percent and 85 percent. The college participation rate is the simplest measure of a state's capacity for higher education. Nevada is one of the lowest in the West.

Should Nevada simply maintain current participation rates and grow according to state demographer projections, a 49 percent increase in capacity would equate to an increase of 40,000 new students. Of those, 31,000 students, or 78 percent, would be in Southern Nevada.

Presently, Nevada ranks 50th in the United States in having the lowest number of high school graduates continue on to any kind of college within a year of graduation.

The Community College of Southern Nevada (CCSN) has averaged a 10 percent to 15 percent annual growth rate from 1987 to 1997. Although CCSN serves traditional college-age populations, it also serves many older students who seek retraining and upgrading skills. The average age of CCSN students is 28 to 31 years of age.

UNLV is growing at approximately 5 percent per year, with more than 20 percent of its students in graduate programs and approximately 20 percent of its student body from out-of-state. UNLV is considered a commuter campus. Campus housing is limited and the university is limited in its expansion capability. Nearly half of the students are 25 or older and the average student age is 28. UNLV is effectively landlocked from future physical expansion at the Maryland Parkway campus. To maintain its emphasis on research and postgraduate degrees and accommodate a growing student enrollment, resources must be allocated to these areas, reducing resources to be allocated to the traditional four-year baccalaureate programs.

The Nevada Development Authority recently published the Southern Nevada Manufacturing and Distribution Survey. In that survey, 10 percent of existing manufacturing companies feel that "qualified labor" and "education" are lacking in Southern Nevada.

The Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority's Strategic Plan identified a projected deficit in the number of teachers in coming years. Over the next 20 years, 14,500 teachers need to be hired to meet projected needs. We need to teach teachers to teach.

The State Occupational Projections, compiled by the State Employment Office, indicates that the need for registered nurses will increase by 67 percent, or 6,650 positions, between 1996 and 2006. This represents 800 new positions opening each year. Personal prosperity and regional economic development are increasingly tied to baccalaureate and graduate degree programs -- precisely the levels where Nevada is most deficient.

Nevada must address the need for more facilities and faculty to provide higher education for this significant growth in students and need for trained professionals. These educational needs have to be funded. The only question is "how" Southern Nevada will address its educational needs.

Southern Nevada needs a new kind of college that complements UNLV and CCSN, that fills the gap between the community college providing skill training, vocational programs and junior college transfers, and UNLV meeting its mission of becoming a premier urban university through research and professional graduate programs.

Nevada, unlike other states, does not have a state college system. A four-year state college would provide a focus on baccalaureate programs, a traditional college campus education experience, and allow the same degree of college access for Nevadans that high school graduates have in other states.

The city of Henderson is ideally suited for a four-year state college. The city is primarily residential, situated in close proximity to a major metropolitan area. Studies have shown such communities to be the model for excellent college towns.

Thankfully, during this last legislative session, the idea for a Henderson State College received overwhelming support with the passage of Assembly Bill 200, which created an advisory committee to examine the feasibility of locating a new four-year state college in Henderson. The committee will deliver its findings to the 71st session of the Nevada State Legislature before Sept. 1, 2000.

We have an unbelievable opportunity here to shape our future, recognizing that so much in our future depends on the availability and quality of education we provide. The decisions we make will affect our economic stability, our quality of life, and our children. We may never have this chance, or this choice, again.