Regents vote to bail out fire academy

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Jan. 17, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

The troubled University of Nevada, Reno's Fire Science Academy will reopen in May with a multi-million dollar debt that officials say will continue to grow.

The Board of Regents on Wednesday voted 8-2 to issue $31 million in revenue bonds to bail out the Carlin academy. Regents Tom Kirkpatrick and Mark Alden dissented.

The money will be go toward paying off a court-ordered judgment against the academy, though it won't cover costs to reopen the school.

Student fees over the next 30 years will be used to pay off the bonds unless another source of revenue is found. The fees will top $3 per credit hour after three years.

"It was a bad decision when they built this academy and it is still a bad decision," Kirkpatrick said. "Primarily, we are now putting a load on students that are not yet born."

Regents denied a request for $8.5 million above the bond issue that would have paid for costs around the startup and past debt.

Even with a deficit, John Lilley, UNR's newly appointed president, said they will make a success out of the fire academy.

"It will open," Lilley said. "We will be working very hard to secure other sources from outside benefactors. But this deficit will grow."

If the fire academy can attract 2,000 students, that will generate an estimated $1.5 million in income, reducing UNR's deficit to $4 million. Under that projection, the academy wouldn't break even until 2005.

Regents questioned whether that enrollment projections were realistic because the academy previously saw poor enrollment.

Lilley was candid with regents Wednesday, saying there were no guarantees.

"We have to re-establish the reputation of the academy before we try to do any fund-raising," Lilley said. "This is not without risk and there are no guarantees."