Chancellor warns against shortfall

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 | 9:49 a.m.

Getting a college education in Southern Nevada will be much more difficult and costly if the Legislature does not adequately fund higher education, Chancellor Jane Nichols said Wednesday.

The critical number this legislative session is 86 percent. The University and Community College System of Nevada is asking the Legislature to approve that much of its $1.264 billion budget. Anything less spells trouble.

"It's more a case that we won't catch up," Nichols said at a meeting with the Sun editorial board. "If funding isn't adequate, you don't get any money for new growth. Where is the growth? Southern Nevada. So, if funding isn't adequate, Southern Nevadans would be the biggest losers."

The higher education budget recommended by Gov. Kenny Guinn includes money for growth. Anything less would mean students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Community College of Southern Nevada would have a harder time completing their degrees, Nichols said. Statewide, it means tuition rates will increase and institutions throughout the state will have a harder time creating a more educated workforce.

"We are really at a crossroads in higher education in Nevada," Nichols said. "What will happen if we don't get the funding that we need is that we will have really squandered the opportunity for us to get ahead."

Over the past three years the number of Nevada high school graduates attending college has risen to 49 percent. The rate had been 37 percent. Nichols attributed those gains to the Millennium Scholarship program and the state's changing attitudes about higher education.

Nichols said institutions such as UNLV have also built up environmental science, physics and entertainment technology research programs, and that research will eventually benefit the local economy.

But during the past year the university system budget was cut by 3 percent, prompting hiring freezes, which resulted in longer registration lines for UNLV students because there were 10 fewer employees to help out. Some students were unable to take courses necessary to complete their majors because there were not enough teachers to offer more classes, according to earlier reports by education officials.

As classroom options remain limited by the budget, the state faces the challenge of providing for more students. From 2002 to 2010, enrollment at Nevada colleges will increase by an estimated 45,000 students with 75 percent of that growth happening in Las Vegas, according to projections.

Nichols said problems will continue to mount as the system attempts to cope with ever-increasing enrollment in Southern Nevada. If funding isn't at the right level, more tuition hikes are inevitable, she said.

"The impact, if this were to go on, would be devastating to the institutions," Nichols said. "They would fall apart."