Berkley urges Legislature to change college funding

Tuesday, March 16, 1999 | 10:42 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has urged the Nevada Legislature to cure the shortfall in funds for UNLV compared with the money going to the University of Nevada, Reno.

Berkley, in a speech to the Legislature and later at a press conference Monday, said she's been fighting since she was a student at UNLV to correct the inequities. She was also a university regent.

"I fought for it every session (of the Legislature)," she said.

She was reminded that Clark County has had the majority on the Board of Regents for the past 20 years and could have addressed the problem.

"You are 100 percent right," she replied. "And if those Southern Nevada regents had worked together and voted the same way, we would have equity now.

"But you can't do that when half of your Southern Nevada regents go south on you," she said.

The inequity, in terms of full-time student equivalency as opposed to a straight student count, "is not the $6,000 UNLV is talking about and it's not the $400 UNR is talking about.

"It's probably somewhere in the middle," she said.

In spite of requests for money to launch a study of the question, the Legislature never allocated the funds. But the regents at a recent meeting agreed to fund the study itself to determine the disparity.

"Since I first got on the board of regents in 1990, we were talking about the inherent unfairness of the formulas," Berkley said. "In theory they work well. But they don't work because the formulas are never fully funded."

Her reference was to the funding for staff for the universities, such as counselors, librarians and other support employees.

"If the formulas are never fully funded, then the Southern Nevada campuses, which experience the greatest growth, never get compensated. So their budgets get further and further behind the 8-ball with every passing session," she said.

Officials at UNR say there are reasons for the inequities, such as having more master's and doctorate programs that cost more; there are more professors who are paid higher than UNLV; and the school has statewide programs such as the agriculture extension service it must pay for.

UNR also argues there's more square footage to care for and the campus is older, which means higher maintenance costs.

Berkley said she was the biggest advocate for eliminating the disparity until Regent Steve Sisolak of Las Vegas arrived in January and started the push for equal funding.