State colleges may have to cut staff, faculty for raises

Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 | 11:40 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The University and Community College System of Nevada may have to cut faculty or staff or keep positions vacant in order to have enough money to provide pay raises for professors, Chancellor Jane Nichols said today.

She told a joint meeting of Senate and Assembly budget subcommittees that the system faces a "dilemma" in achieving the plan outlined by Gov. Kenny Guinn. The governor has put enough money in his budget for 2 percent pay raises for faculty and he has called on the university to find an additional amount of money to boost that to 4 percent.

Nichols said the system would need $5.5 million the first year of the biennium and $10.5 million the second year to pay for the 2 percent. "There is a lot of anxious faculty and staff," she said.

About 75 percent to 80 percent of the budget goes to pay for personnel costs in the system. Reports coming in from the various schools indicate that they may have to leave positions vacant or to eliminate jobs in order to get the money necessary for the pay hike.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said this was "not something thrust on the system," by the governor. University officials and Guinn met prior to the budget decisions to talk about the system coming up with matching funds.

But Nichols said the discussion was based on the recommendation of the regents for a 3 percent cost-of-living raise, not the 4 percent recommended by the governor.

The chancellor suggested the schools will "need some assistance" from the Legislature to finance the full 4 percent.

Nichols told the subcommittees that recommendations will be made later this spring to increase the fees for non-resident students. Those extra revenues, however, are not included in the budget, she said.

The fees will not be adopted until the June meeting of the Board of Regents, as two public hearings are required.

According to the budget, university non-resident tuition starting this fall will be $7,450 per semester. Any fee increase would not be effective until next year.

Nichols said studies are going forward on raising the fees for resident students in the next biennium, 2003-2005.

Tuition and fees in the Nevada system are less than the nation and other Western states, she said. "We have kept a pattern of low tuition and low financial aid," Nichols said.

Student enrollment in the university system may be less than predicted in the governor's budget, Nichols said. But the final figures won't be known until April 1. Guinn's budget projects a 4.8 percent growth to 54,724 students and then 3.5 percent to 56,616 students in the second year of the biennium.

The governor's budget for the university system calls for $889.6 million in the first year of the biennium with $621.2 million coming from the state. The budget goes to $1.054 billion in the second year with $756 million coming from the general fund.

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