Chancellor searches for faculty pay raise funds

Friday, Jan. 26, 2001 | 11:38 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Chancellor Jane Nichols says she's "scrambling" to find $16 million in the proposed budget of the University and Community College System of Nevada to give faculty pay raises, but she added she doesn't plan to increase tuition to get the money.

"That would not be a wise thing to do," she said, referring to a suggestion that the university may have to raise tuition to get the money for a 2 percent raise for faculty to match the 2 percent set aside by Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Nichols appeared Thursday before the joint budget committees of the Legislature to explain Guinn's recommended $1 billion budget for the system, of which $755.9 million will come from a state appropriation. The rest will come from student fees, federal funds and interest on investments.

Guinn has put enough money in the school budget for a 2 percent raise each of the next two years. And he said the university is going to have to find enough to match that.

The governor is giving a 4 percent raise each year to state workers but has proposed this new formula for the university.

University regents initially recommended that the state fund a 3 percent cost-of-living raise for faculty in each of the next two years.

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, questioned whether tuition might have to be boosted to get the matching funds. But Nichols threw cold water on that idea, adding that she doesn't now know where she will be able to find the $16 million.

UNLV President Carol Harter told the committee her school would have to come up with $5.2 million of the total for the matching funds. "That's an enormous amount to generate within our budget," she said, adding it would be a "real challenge."

Jim Richardson, representing the Nevada Faculty Alliance, said it was going to be difficult to find the extra money in the budget of the system, but he was optimistic. Nichols, said Richardson, must have the flexibility to shift money between budgets, but not between schools.

"They will be a bit embarrassed not to make it," said Richardson, referring to the full 4 percent. He added however, "They may not quite make it all."

The 2 percent put in by Guinn is guaranteed as a pay raise, no matter how much the university is able to raise.

Nichols said she was "not confident" she can find all the extra money in the budget and at one point suggested the Legislature might include more state money for the pay raise. And she outlined other projects the university wants, that didn't make the cut by the governor.

Senate Majority Leader William Raggio, R-Reno, told Nichols the Legislature may have to trim Guinn's $3.74 billion budget by $30 million because of a slowdown in the economy and the tax revenues coming in.