Colleges’ funding to student ratio misses the mark

Jennifer Knight

Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2002 | 9:26 a.m.

More students than money poured into UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada last fall, but at the state college the opposite was the case.

Enrollment figures released Tuesday show the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, grew 9.5 percent from fall 2001 to fall 2002 -- outstripping the money the Legislature doled out last year to pay for growth. The community college showed a 0.4 percent gain, staying only slightly behind in funding.

But the Nevada State College at Henderson filled just 116 full-time spots when they were paid $3.75 million to accommodate the equivalent of 500 full-time students.

Fall enrollment figures will be used by the 2003 Legislature to determine how much money each institution will get during the next biennium. Institutions with enrollment surges will need more money to pay for additional students. Lackluster enrollment will likely be met with less funding.

The state college still has a semester to get its enrollment numbers up to 500 full-time students, but college President Kerry Romesburg said a more accurate projection is 225 or 250 students for the year.

"There is no way in the world that we are going make the 500 FTE (full-time equivalent) for which we are funded," Romesburg said. "We won't even be close."

Romesburg had hoped to have more students by now, but the college got a late start in its recruiting efforts and many of the graduating high school students had already gone elsewhere.

UNLV has the opposite problem, with too many students and not enough money.

"There does come a point where you cannot serve all of the students you have without additional resources," President Carol Harter said.

The university has eliminated $9.3 million from its budget by forgoing building renovations and groundskeeping to pay for unexpected cuts. If funding for the 2003-2005 budget doesn't get better, enrollment could be capped, Harter said.

"(The cuts) wouldn't come from cutting students that are already here," Harter said. "We would just not be accepting all students who come to the university."

Romesburg and others say, with a state revenue shortfall projection of $327 million by July 1, 2003, most people are counting on the state to generate more revenue through taxes. The Governor's Task Force on Tax Policy last week finished recommendations for the Legislature to impose and raise a variety of taxes.

"It's a matter of how much new money will be on the table to fund the growth." Romesburg said. "I think the whole tenor of the discussion will hinge on the revenue estimates and how much that will mean for higher education."