Regent says inequity in college funds bad as ever

Friday, June 18, 1999 | 11:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada got shortchanged again when the Legislature handed out extra money for library books and this is just another example of widespread disparity in the system, Regent Steve Sisolak complained Thursday.

Sisolak, who has led the charge to bring about equity in funding, said a breakdown of an extra $700,000 going to the schools for books shows a student at the Community College of Southern Nevada gets a per capita grant of $2 while one at the Great Basin College in Elko receives $70.

His comments came during a meeting of the Board of Regents with Chancellor Richard Jarvis explaining how the system was treated by the Legislature in the budget. Each campus gets so much per student and money for library books is included in that formula.

But the 1999 Legislature set aside an extra $700,000 from the estate tax to be divided among the schools for library books. UNLV and the University of Nevada, Reno will each receive $200,000, despite the fact UNLV has more students. Each community college gets $75,000, despite the fact the Community College of Southern Nevada has 60 percent of the students in community colleges in Nevada.

UNLV President Carol Harter said that the extra funding in library books was not the only area of disparity. She said lump sums were handed out for security, gender equity, research and technology. It did not matter that some schools have more students than others, she said.

As an example, Harter said there was extra money for security but UNLV "got zero."

University officials told Sisolak that this equal allocation system started more than 10 years ago and has never been changed to account for growth.

Regent Chairwoman Jill Derby of Gardnerville said this will be brought to the attention of those who conduct a study in the next 18 months of the unequal funding between campuses.

Jarvis told the board the Legislature allocated $11 million to correct part of the disparity. But to cure the problem would take about $24 million a year.

The chancellor said the Legislature gave the university system a 14.9 percent increase in its budget and tried to move the money toward where the students were.

For instance, he said, UNLV got a 20.9 percent increase in its budget compared to 4.9 percent for UNR. The Community College of Southern Nevada received a 30 percent increase compared with 18.8 percent for Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno and 7.2 percent for Western Nevada Community College in Carson City.

Sisolak questioned whether the lump sum for library books could be redistributed by the regents, instead of following the plan of the Legislature. There was no definitive answer given.