College growth not included in proposed budget

Monday, May 14, 2001 | 10:28 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Class sizes at UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada could grow, and more part-time instructors may be teaching, under the proposed budget, university officials say.

But on the bright side, faculty will receive a 4 percent increase in each of the next two years, and the proposed Nevada State College at Henderson will open on schedule, in September 2002, though with only half of the students regents had hoped for.

The Senate-Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Higher Education agreed Friday to lower the proposed budget for the system by more than $34 million in state funds, but it also agreed to pump in an extra $22 million from the estate tax.

The recommendations of the subcommittee will go to the full Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, but they traditionally accept the decisions of the subcommittee.

University officials said it's too early to tell the full effect of the budget decisions, but noted that their worst fears were averted.

"The action of this committee has given us the hope that we are going to be able handle this and not take any drastic measures like layoffs," said Jane Nichols, chancellor of the University and Community College System of Nevada.

She noted that anticipated enrollment growth at UNLV, the Community College of Southern Nevada, Western Nevada and Truckee Meadows community colleges has not been funded.

"So they are going to have to handle more students with basically the same number of people," the chancellor said. "That probably will mean some additional class-size increases and those types of thing," including a heavier reliance on part-time faculty, she said.

Out-of-state students probably will pay more to help make up the difference. The university system recommended nonresident fees be raised to bring in an additional $1.5 million.

At UNLV and the University of Nevada, Reno, that would add $335 per year to out-of-state tuition, and at the community colleges, the increase would be $35 per credit for part-time nonresident students.

The subcommittee also ordered the tuition at the Boyd Law School at UNLV be increased by 3.5 percent starting next year.

The extra money would be used to help fund a legal clinic that the law school needs in order to complete its accreditation.

The proposed Nevada State College at Henderson was both a winner and loser in the final budget. Under the subcommittee's recommendation, the first class would have 500 students, not the 1,000 planned for, in September 2002.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, the strongest advocate of the state college, said he backed the decision of the subcommittee, on which he serves.

"The state has to tighten its belt, and it's only appropriate the state college do the same," Perkins said.

"The important thing is the college will be on track," Nichols said. "We have now created a state college with this budget, and we are happy."

The reduction of that first class will save the state $2.5 million next year.

The lawmakers took the money saved from the Henderson college proposal and spread it among several programs. Saved from the budget ax by that trim and others were:

* $300,000 for the Basque Studies at UNR.

* $100,000 for the UNR radio station.

* A proposed $250,000 for the Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies at UNLV. Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said that would be saved through the juggling of other funds.

* $750,000 to keep the End of Life program at UNR.

* $334,000 a year to help pay for medical residents at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

In addition, regents were given permission to use $6.1 million more than the $15 million originally proposed from the estate tax. That money will:

* Keep the proposed dental school alive.

* Maintain the baccalaureate program at Great Basin College in Elko.

* Help found the Boyd Law School legal clinic.

* Underwrite a $1 million emergency fund.

Raggio told Nichols the university would have to come to the Interim Finance Committee to spend the emergency fund.

The subcommittee also adjusted the governor's recommendation for spending $1 million in each of the two fiscal years to improve compliance at UNLV and UNR with the federal gender equality rules for athletic funding.

Gov. Kenny Guinn had recommended that $725,000 a year go to UNLV and $350,000 to UNR. The subcommittee decided each campus would receive $537,000 next fiscal year and $732,876 in the following year.