Panel starts review of university funding issues

Brendan Riley

Thursday, Oct. 28, 1999 | 10:05 a.m.

CARSON CITY - As a new panel starts its review of state university funding, the chairman hopes to avoid a repeat of a north-south "tug of war" that flared during the 1999 legislative session.

The chairman, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, told other panel members Wednesday that such regionalism "serves no useful purpose" in the effort to achieve funding equity.

The Committee to Study the Funding of Higher Education was given $150,000 to study of funding formulas within the University and Community College System of Nevada.

Funding equity became an issue last session after some southern lawmakers, prompted by university regents from Las Vegas, questioned why the University of Nevada, Reno gets more money per student than faster-growing UN-Las Vegas.

But lawmakers avoided a major fight by adjusting some disbursements and promising an evaluation from the study committee.

The existing formula is based on various factors, including enrollments, educators' degree levels and average pay. It worked against UNLV in part because growth-induced hiring of younger professors dragged down salary averages there in comparison with the average for longer-tenured professors at the Reno campus.

Raggio, R-Reno, said the current formula was created through a legislative study authorized 14 years ago. While lawmakers have always "stepped up to the plate" with funds for the university system, there's a need for a new formula that's flexible and equitable, he added.

The 12-member funding committee's efforts will expand on a study earlier this year by university regents.

The regents' study found a $24 million inequity that shortchanged UNLV by $7.6 million a year and the Community College of Southern Nevada by $15.2 million a year.

Lawmakers agreed to make up about one-quarter of the inequity identified in the study over the two years of the 1999-2001 budget, about $5.9 million a year.

The 1999-2001 budget for the entire university system, including the two university campuses and several community colleges around the state, is $867 million.

The new panel includes three members appointed by the Senate, three by the Assembly, three by the Board of Regents and three by Gov. Kenny Guinn.

The committee's next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 30. It will make a report by Jan. 1, 2001, in time for the 2001 legislative session.