Rogers makes new push for state funding

Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 | 11:23 a.m.

If higher education in Nevada is going to continue to move forward and meet the exponential growth of its student bodies, state lawmakers, local government entities and private individuals need to step forward together to help foot the bill, Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers said Thursday.

The call came in a state of the system address before the Board of Regents, in which Rogers detailed what the University and Community College System of Nevada needs from regents, lawmakers and private individuals to meet future needs.

Rogers asked state lawmakers for the money the system needs to meet future growth, and warned them not to cave in to short-term budget solutions that will cripple the system in the long run.

"There is no shortcut or cheap fix to create a world-class system of higher education," Rogers said.

Rogers' funding initiatives include asking the Legislature to allow the state's institutions to keep any unspent money it has at the end of the year, to keep all of the overhead monies the institutions receive from research grants and to fully fund each institution using the state's formula levels.

Rogers suggested that it may be time for local entities, such as the city of Las Vegas and Clark County, to help supplement the state funds that go to the community college.

But Rogers also enumerated ways for the Board of Regents to make the system more efficient, including educating more students at the lower-cost institutions such as the community colleges and at Nevada State College. And he repeated his usual mantra that institutions must go after more private dollars to pay for their capital construction needs.

In his seven months as the system's volunteer chancellor, the millionaire businessman and Sunbelt Communications owner said he has found the system to be severely underfunded and very efficient with the money it does have.

And some of his legislative requests, such as the request to keep extra money at the end of the year and the request to allow universities to keep all their research money, would encourage the institutions to be more efficient, Rogers said.

The current budgetary laws of the state require any unexpended funds to revert back to state coffers, Rogers said, but instead of encouraging good money management that policy instead encourages institutions to "to spend taxpayer dollars whether that be wisely or unwisely or lose them."

The required 25 percent "tithe" the universities must give back to the state likewise "stifles the entrepreneurial drive of the institutions who are seeking grants," Rogers said.

Rogers suggested that any unspent money from the institutions go toward need-based scholarships and that the research money currently going to the state stay with the universities to pay for more research infrastructure.

Rogers also spoke against Democratic Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani's suggestion that Nevada State College merge with the Community College of Southern Nevada instead of funding the college's first main building.

The merger might save pennies in the short-term, Rogers said, but would cost the state millions down the road when growth forces the college's to separate.

"Nevada, like so many states, seems so desperate to create short-term fixes that it fails to look down the road to see what its needs will be ten years from now," Rogers said. "A thoughtless marriage of these institutions will create a messy, ugly, expensive divorce in the future of higher education."

Rogers' legislative agenda also chided Giunchigliani's proposed constitutional amendment to change the Board of Regents structure to a mostly appointed board and other proposed bills to reduce the board's size.

Rogers said most of the board's well-publicized problems have or will be fixed by strengthening the position of the chancellor. Appointing the board would only serve to take away the "power of the electorate to control its higher education destiny."

Reducing the size of the board would similarly spread the board too thin, Rogers said, as the 13-member board must govern eight institutions spread throughout the state.

Rogers produced 40-page booklets on his state of the system speech, only part of which he read aloud during Thursday's Board of Regents meeting at the UNLV Foundation Room, and said he planned to distribute the document to leaders throughout the state.

Regent Mark Alden said he wholeheartedly agreed with Rogers' analysis of the system's strengths, weaknesses and future needs and said it should be required reading for lawmakers.

Most regents responded to Rogers' speech with similar enthusiasm, but Regent Steve Sisolak said he did question the feasibleness of some of the financial initiatives.

If the state Legislature allows the institutions to keep some of the money they currently give back, for instance, the state will likely cut the system's budget elsewhere, Sisolak said.

He also questioned the wisdom of directly confronting Giunchigliani on her policies, although Rogers never said her name, and said he wished Rogers would have tried to work with her more.

"She's a powerful legislator," Sisolak said of the former CCSN spokeswoman.

Giunchigliani, when reached by phone Thursday, said she wasn't surprised the chancellor had opposed her amendment to change the structure of the board, but said it should go to the public to decide on.

As to her proposal to merge Nevada State College and CCSN, Giunchigliani said she views it more as co-locating the schools together so that they save on administrative and facility costs. Each institution would still have its own identify, Giunchigliani said.

At the least, the Nevada State College needs to develop better articulation agreements with the other state institutions to aid transfer students, Giunchigliani said.

"I'm not saying my idea is perfect," Giunchigliani said. "But I'm just trying to promote a discussion of what works best. The public already does not support the state college, but since it's already here, I'm trying to find a way to make it work."

Other state lawmakers said they were aware of Rogers' concerns and would consider them.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said Rogers' suggestions are nothing new.

The state has gradually given the university system back more and more of its research money, but the indirect costs covered in those research grants are already paid for by the state, and that is why the institutions are asked to return a portion of that money, Raggio said.

The question of keeping extra money not used is trickier, Raggio said, because the state requires all of its agencies to return that money.

"If we allowed that with all state agencies, then you would not have a very effective budget process, Raggio said.

He said the distributive school account that funds the public schools makes the same proposal that money not used in a fiscal year be allowed to be carried over. It has never been permitted.

"There is always a proposal that there not be any reversions," Raggio said. "But where there are shortfalls, then people look to the state to come up with general fund money to fill it."

Greg Bortolin, spokesman for Gov. Kenny Guinn, said the governor hasn't made any budget decisions yet, but that he would be "surprised" if the budget contains major cuts for the university system.

"It's pretty difficult to cut an entity that is showing the kind of growth the university system is showing," he said.

The governor can discuss Rogers' concerns about taking money from university grants and funds that the university system does not spend after Guinn presents his budget, Bortolin said.

"When the dust settles, I think everybody's going to be quite pleased with how it comes out for education," Bortolin said.

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