Panel questions cost of proposed college

Erin Neff

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2001 | 11:28 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- When lawmakers learned Wednesday just how successful Great Basin College's transformation to a four-year teaching program has been, some questioned whether other two-year schools couldn't do the same.

And if the schools did, why would the state need to spend $22.8 million on the proposed Henderson State College?

That is what several members of the Assembly's Education Committee wondered Wednesday after hearing an annual report from Jane Nichols, chancellor of the University and Community College System of Nevada.

Tom Collins, D-North Las Vegas, was particularly concerned about whether the proposed teachers college would drain resources from the Cheyenne campus of the Community College of Southern Nevada, which is in his district.

"The Cheyenne campus or the West Charleston campus or the Henderson campus (of CCSN) might have been better locations for a four-year program," Collins said.

Great Basin College added a four-year teaching program in 1999 that will graduate its first elementary education teachers with bachelor's degrees this spring. Previously the two-year community college offered only enough courses for students to transfer elsewhere to complete their degree.

Located in Elko, the college serves students from five rural counties. Prior to starting the four-year teaching program, the school spent $2.5 million to expand its library.

Another $1.5 million was appropriated to start the four-year programs. Of that, $600,000 went to the elementary program and $900,000 was approved last year to start a four-year mining program.

Kathy Von Tobel, R-Las Vegas, asked Nichols whether Great Basin's success was considered when the Henderson State College was proposed.

Nichols said adding four-year programs at other community colleges was rejected because the cost for those schools to attain accreditation in the new programs would be too great.

"This year I cannot tell you that the dollars for the State College at Henderson might have gone for something else," Nichols said.

She described the Henderson State College as a long-term plan to address an acute teacher shortage statewide. Simply adding four-year programs at community college sites wouldn't be enough, she added. But Von Tobel persisted, asking whether the University and Community College System had placed the Henderson State College project higher than other proposed institutions, including a proposed pharmacy school at UNLV.

"Was that a higher priority than the pharmacy school?" Von Tobel asked.

Nichols skirted the question, answering only that the Henderson State College was considered No. 10 on a priority list for one-time expenses submitted to the state for funding.

After the meeting Von Tobel said she considered Nichols' response something of "smoke and mirror" nature.

"I believe the pharmacy school is a higher priority," she said. "In my mind it was more important."

Also after the meeting, Nichols said the pharmacy school's $2.8 million request for state funding was listed as No. 7 on a priority list for ongoing programs.

"I was very disappointed that there wasn't money for the pharmacy school," Von Tobel said. "A four-year program could be started at the community colleges."

The Henderson State College, a pet project of Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, almost didn't get any state funding. Gov. Kenny Guinn added the college to his proposed budget at the 11th hour after receiving a state advisory committee's study examining the efficacy of the school.

Some argue Guinn's decision to give the school funding for its building, start-up costs and initial year enrollment was a way to pay off Perkins, the most powerful Democrat in the Assembly.

However, criticism and questions from Democrats Collins and Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas, may indicate Perkins doesn't have full support for the plan.

Koivisto asked whether federal funding was possible for the pharmacy school because a legislative health care committee recommended that school for state funding.