More cash needed to get state college off ground

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Feb. 8, 2001 | 11:38 a.m.

Nevada State College at Henderson needs more money than the governor is willing to give.

Of the $3 million requested for the new state college's operating fund, Gov. Kenny Guinn recommended only $1 million be approved. That would leave enough money to pay for administrative salaries, but not allow enough to hire teachers, print class schedules or recruit students.

Additionally, the governor's proposed spending amount for building the campus was $16 million compared to $26 million requested by the Board of Regents and the college's founding president, Richard Moore. That budget would effectively reduce the school's square footage from 137,600 square feet to 100,000.

"The governor's budget is less than an ideal situation for us," said Orlando Sandoval, interim vice president for planning and administration.

"It's not going to be impossible, but it would make it more difficult."

A task force committee met Wednesday to plan how it will allocate the money proposed in the budget. The committee will then make recommendations to the board before final requests are taken to the Legislature in May. That is when the final decision on how the state's $756 million for higher education will be spent.

Moore proposes to pay more for teachers than what is offered at Community College of Southern Nevada, but less than what is paid to Nevada's university professors.

"What I'm doing is proposing a salary structure that's in between the two groups," Moore said.

The salary range for an incoming instructor with a bachelor's degree at the state college would be between $23,874 and $44,339 over a nine-month period. The salary range for a full professor with a doctorate's degree would be between $52,990 and $98,411.

One of the sticking points with regard to teacher's benefits was a request by Moore to have the ability for faculty to transfer from any institution in Nevada to the state college.

"If we start doing that, we are going to have great political problems," said Regent Dorothy Gallagher. "One of the worries is that Dr. Moore is going to take over the state college and take all of our good people from the existing institutions."

Moore said that most of his recruitment efforts are being made in other states. He hopes to hire 50 full-time faculty members before the campus opens in fall 2002, with 30 more teachers to be approved in the next biennium. The school is also counting on the equivalent of 1,000 full-time students in its first year.

Another proposal, which might not be met with open arms but could save the college money, is to outsource student services. That potential plan would involve partnering with UNLV and CCSN to use their library services, bookstore and registration facilities.

The proposal also suggests using Amazon.com to provide books for students and to use local providers for health, counseling, disability and security services.

State college officials, along with the task force, still have a ways to go before they can shape what the college will become.

Even if the Board of Regents manages to get the Legislature to approve additional funding for the operational budget, state college officials still need to come up with $10 million from private industry to have the entire project funded.

"We have not raised that money yet," Sandoval said. "We anticipate that the Legislature would like to see some commitment from us, however."

If state college officials do not get the private funding needed, it is possible they would have to downsize their project, Sandoval said. But it will be up to the Legislature to make those decisions.