Harter offers plan to save $9.3 million

Jennifer Knight

Friday, Aug. 30, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.

UNLV President Carol Harter is hoping that a new plan to cut corners will save the university $9.3 million without having to resort to layoffs or cutting classes next semester, she said Thursday.

Less than half of the $9.3 million shortfall comes from Gov. Kenny Guinn's 3 percent budget cut. The remainder comes from unfunded energy costs, extra health benefits created during this year's special legislative session, higher property insurance and increased enrollment costs.

"We are trying to do this with a minimum amount of pain," Harter said. "You cannot cut $9.3 million from the budget without causing some pain. This is just an impossible situation."

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas will forgo building renovations, spend less on groundskeeping and cut overhead administrative costs to save $5.5 million. The university hopes to save an additional $3.8 million by freezing up to 150 positions this year, officials said.

The savings from freezing positions that would have been filled this year depends largely on a set number of people leaving or retiring from UNLV. The concern is that with retirement pools down due to losses in the stock market, attrition may be low. If enough money cannot be saved on salaries, class cuts could be next, officials said.

"It is only a last-resort measure for us to consider cutting classes," said Ray Alden, UNLV provost.

Harter said that she cannot guarantee students will be entirely spared from budget-related pains, but she said she plans to avoid that if possible.

Despite the bleak outlook, Harter said she will not abandon her plan to make UNLV a top research university. To that end, the university has proposed a $75 million science and engineering complex, which would be paid for out of the state's capital improvement budget.

"It's got enormous economic development capacity to have such a building," Harter said.

The complex would attract world-class scientists and help bring UNLV up to par with other research universities of its size in terms of laboratory space and state-of-the-art equipment, Harter said.

Although UNLV is juggling its budget deficit with plans for growth, "the two aren't mutually exclusive," Harter said.