Student-muffling angers regent

Jennifer Knight

Friday, Oct. 10, 2003 | 9:52 a.m.

Regent Mark Alden stormed out of a Board of Regents meeting Thursday after a vote effectively kept students from commenting on an item that significantly raised the cost of attending school.

"I left because it was just difficult to look those students in the eyes after that," Alden said. "I was appalled that we had students both for and against the (fee increase) and they could not be heard."

Regents were poised to reconsider a decision to raise student fees to $173 a semester by fall of 2007. The first vote to approve the fee increase was cast in Reno in July but because students from Las Vegas were unable to chime in on the issue, regents agreed to reconsider the issue Thursday.

With a crowd of students in the audience to set to speak, the regents abruptly moved voted 7-6 to reconfirm their earlier decision to raise student fees. Because regents did not invite students to comment beforehand, the vote effectively ended any chance of discussion.

Regents Alden, Linda Howard, Tom Kirkpatrick, Howard Rosenberg, Doug Seastrand and Steve Sisolak cast the dissenting votes.

"We encourage students to be involved in the process," Sisolak said. "The student who pays this fee was shut out of the process. I disappointed."

Molly Scott, 24, who is working on a master's degree in sports management, said, "It's interesting that they didn't allow students to speak. But even if they had, the outcome would have been the same.

"I think the regents' vote that they knew how we felt about this issue."

The fee increase will pay for a $40 million renovation of the student union building and construction a $50 million state-of-the-art sports facility for students to work out in.

Many of the students sitting in the audience were there in support of the fee hike, saying it would significantly improve the quality of life on campus.

"I would pay up to $500 for this," said Mark Falkenstein, 23, who is majoring in recreation. "I truly think UNLV needs a new recreation center. I feel just by improving this, it's just another step in making sure this is a premier institution."

The new fee schedule will kick in next fall and will be phased in. Students currently pay $61 a semester in student fees. That will increase to $130 in 2006 and $173 in 2007.

Some regents were opposed to the fee hike in light of the rising cost of tuition and books.

There was also concern that a student poll taken last year showing students favored the fee hike was too old to give a clear indication on whether the increase was favored by the incoming freshman class.

Peter Goatz, 20, a psychology major and student senator, said freshmen weren't at that great a disadvantage, and that of the dozen students who showed up, only one opposed the fee hike.

"If this is a horrible burden to them and if financial aid doesn't help them out, then we do have another great institution starting called Nevada State College."

Sunny Gittens, UNLV's director for student involvement and activities, said a poll last year showing the majority of 3,000 students wanted the fee increase was still valid.

"We only moved forward with the project because students wanted it and they were willing to pay a fee to get it," Gittens said. "The surveys last year showed freshmen were more supportive than any other group that was polled."

Sisolak said the board's disregard for student opinion may have been by accident, but he doesn't know that for sure.

"I talked to one regent afterward who said they didn't know what they were doing was eliminating the student's opportunity to speak," Sisolak said. "Was it an inadvertent slipup? I don't know and I guess I won't know."