College’s problem blamed on lack of funds

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Sept. 19, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

An absence of legislative funding and a lack of administrative oversight are to blame for Nevada State College at Henderson's failure to file accreditation papers, officials said.

Jane Nichols, chancellor of the University and Community College System, said Wednesday that because state funding did not begin until July 1, college officials got a late start hiring staff and faculty -- key components of the accreditation process.

"(Accreditation) requires such things as copies of your catalogs, materials on your courses, your syllabi and all of those types of documents," Nichols said. "It's quite voluminous and they just did not have that."

But Regent Steve Sisolak said there was plenty of time to do the legwork on accreditation at the college, which opened its doors this month and has 178 students.

"I don't think it was the Legislature at all," Sisolak said. "They did fund (the state college). Granted, there was a little delay before some of the funding kicked in.

"But the (Nevada State College) Foundation picked up the gap in funding. Sometimes you have to be totally honest, and here, we really just dropped the ball."

An accreditation official said that as far as his organization is concerned, the state college does not yet exist.

"From the commission's point of view, that's correct -- (the state college) does not exist," said Ron Baker, deputy executive director of the Commission on Colleges and Universities, the regional accrediting body.

"There's no penalty for being late. Basically nothing happens until that change gets filed with the commission."

Baker did say that the delay should not hurt the state college's overall accreditation process.

Nevada State College President Kerry Romesburg discovered the oversight. Ideally, the state college should have finished the necessary paperwork by June so that its sponsoring institution, the University of Nevada, Reno, could have signed off on it.

Accreditation is not required for an institution to open its doors, but it assures program quality and paves the way for much-needed student and federal aid.

But the school's curriculum was not approved by the Board of Regents until April. Faculty hiring was not completed until August, and course material was not printed until days before opening.

Until the college is recognized by the accreditation commission, its students cannot receive federal loans or Pell grants and the college cannot apply for federal aid that would ease the state's burden.

"I guess at this point there's nothing we can do about the past," Board of Regents Chairman Doug Seastrand said. "We just have to prepare for the next semester."

Nichols said she has been assured that the problem will be solved within three months.

"We're hopeful that ... UNR (will gain) approval at their December meeting, so that the college can apply for all of the federal funds available," Nichols said.