Budget forces college cutbacks

Jennifer Knight

Friday, June 15, 2001 | 11:18 a.m.

RENO -- Some of the state's colleges and univerities are instituting hiring freezes and reducing class offerings in order to cope with a $38 million budget cut to the university system imposed by the 2001 Legislature.

"Each institution will be impacted in varying degrees," Chancellor Jane Nichols said Thursday at a Board of Regents meeting. "We are already seeing hiring freezes at some of the campuses."

About $75 million is dedicated to the university system from a state fund derived from estate taxes, As part of its strategy for dealing with the budget cuts, some of this emergency money will be used.

Because the Legislature did not approve enough money for the system to pay for costs associated with inflation, many of the state's higher education institutions are left with the same demand but less money to pay for the rising costs of doing business.

UNLV has already instituted a hiring freeze and those who have been offered positions are being asked to hold off on their reporting dates in some instances.

"Of the people we have hired, we're asking that some positions be held open for three months, six months, and even one year in some cases," UNLV President Carol Harter said.

The campus had planned 130 new faculty members but has frozen the number at 90. The reduction will more than likely result in less class offerings for students, which may lengthen graduation times.

Pay for the university and community college presidents, however, could increase. The issue was discussed at Thursday's Board of Regents meeting and will go to the board for a vote in August .

Harter's received a recommended pay increase from $186,924 to $201,000, putting her $2,000 ahead of John Lilley, the new president of the University of Nevada, Reno.

Nevada State College President Richard Moore received a recommendation for a $7,000 raise, bringing his salary to $182,000.

Moore, along with all community college presidents, will also get a $12,000-a-year housing allowance, a perk that has only been available to university presidents and the chancellor. Also, they will each receive an extra $2,000 a year for car allowances, bringing their total annual car allowances to $8,000 a year.

Discussion of raises drew criticism from Regent Steve Sisolak. "We're going to the Legislature saying we have no money. I'm seeing a $2,000 increase here, $4,000 there, and a cost-of-living increase. The appearance is sure not that we're short on money," Sisolak said.

Nichols said the increases would add $80,000 a year more to the system's budget. "I feel these increases are based on the national picture," she said. "They are based on the need to be competitive and it is fair to the presidents."

UNLV officials are using $10,000 in private money to sponsor a suggestion contest that will award prizes to any person or group that can come up with the best idea for saving money.

"We're trying to figure out anything we can to save," Harter said.

At the Community College of Southern Nevada, officials will cap their growing enrollment in order to maintain their positions, said Theo Byrns, interim vice president of academic affairs.

No new positions will be hired, only replacements for existing faculty members, she said. That puts the college in a bit of a Catch 22, because it must grow over the next two years in order to get more funding from the Legislature in the next biennium.

"We're just holding the line right now," Byrns said. "Of course, what happens is that everything else is going up in price and that's creating a hardship for us."

The cost of power is one of those costs that's causing a big concern. If power prices go up during the summer months as expected, it could affect budgets even further, said system officials,

Several of the institutions have already started energy conservation plans. UNLV officials announced Thursday that they were given an award from Nevada Power for their efforts so far. Great Basin College in Elko has reduced its office hours during the summer, working only four instead of five days a week.