CCSN puts freeze on hiring

Jennifer Knight

Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2001 | 11:26 a.m.

The Community College of Southern Nevada announced a hiring freeze this week after learning that state funding could be $16 million less than expected because of lower enrollment, officials said.

"We had plans for that money, but we're just putting a hold on things until we can get a handle on what we are going to do," Allen Ruter, CCSN's vice president for finance and administration, said. "Then we'll review our plans for the future."

A change in the school's controversial method of counting students, coupled with lower enrollment in two of its programs, are to blame, Ruter said. CCSN came up short 2,500 students from what was projected for this year.

Since enrollment is closely tied to state funding, the school is likely to see less money. But it's too early to tell how much funding the school will receive from the Legislature, Chancellor Jane Nichols said.

"It seems premature to be putting a moratorium on hiring," Nichols said. "It's certainly too early in the process to anticipate the amount that CCSN will be receiving."

Nichols pointed out that there is enough extra money in the budget to hire additional staff at CCSN.

No positions are due to be eliminated, Ruter said, but the school will be looking at cutting spending on operations and teaching supplies until there are more hard figures on what revenue will be received for 2001-2003.

Before student counting practices were revised, CCSN critics argued that the school was artificially boosting its enrollment and receiving state money it should not have.

The school offered a free course to all first-time students and claimed them as part of their full-time enrollment.

CCSN also contracted with union officials to give college credit to members who were required to take training classes as part of their normal job training.

In exchange for being able to claim the students as part of their enrollment numbers, the school paid the salary of union-approved teachers, Regent Steve Sisolak, a critic of the program, said.

"I don't understand still to this day how they were CCSN students," Sisolak said. "By counting the free classes and union classes, it caused a huge blip in enrollment, which will be a one-time anomaly."

Ruter defended the school's practices, saying they were modeled after other schools that had done the same thing. The union apprentice program is still in existence, but enrollment has fallen by half since last year.

Nonetheless, CCSN officials say that any budget shortfalls will affect staffing for these programs:

-- Student services, an area accreditation officials described as "severely understaffed," was slated for 15 counselors to be added. Those plans are now on hold.

-- The new technology centers in Green Valley and Pahrump, which were expected to be fully staffed by next fall, may have to start with a smaller crew. It is not yet known whether the school will have to delay opening these programs.

-- Plans for staffing a new science building, due to be completed by 2002, are up in the air.

Aside from the funding problem, the governor also has suggested that CCSN match a 2 percent cost-of-living increase for faculty -- money that Ruter says the school does not have.

"Not only did we get $16 million taken away from us, we have to find $3 million to fund that increase," Ruter said. "We're not panicking though. Hopefully, the situation will improve."