Regents to ask board to close funding gap

Thursday, Feb. 25, 1999 | 9:18 a.m.

Regents Mark Alden and Steve Sisolak had a dress rehearsal Tuesday to deliver their arguments about the need for higher education dollars to travel from Carson City to Southern Nevada, which teaches two-thirds of the state's students with less than one-half of the budget pie.

Their audience, which included the UNLV Faculty Senate and UNLV President Carol Harter, gave them standing ovations.

"Money should follow the students," Alden told more than 30 faculty leaders and a dozen administrators. "Money should follow enrollments. Money should follow the need. It sounds simple, but getting there won't be easy."

Alden and Sisolak will ask the other five regents Thursday to take immediate steps to begin closing what has grown into a $3,000-per-student funding gap favoring students at the University of Nevada, Reno over those at UNLV.

When Sisolak went public with his concerns nearly a month ago, UNR President Joe Crowley said he supported an objective study about the funding disparities and a review of the state's higher-education funding formulas.

On Tuesday, Crowley reiterated his support for such studies, which he expects the Legislature will also support.

UNR backers are focusing on a legislative study that points to a $784-per-student disparity in instructional funding rather than the $3,000 gap.

Harter said the problem is that higher education funding formulas do not adequately address enrollment growth in Southern Nevada.