Regents briefs for Feb. 2, 2004

Monday, Feb. 2, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.

Name of system to be changed

The Board of Regents approved a name change for the system it oversees to better reflect the various higher education institutions in the state, but stipulated no more than $1,000 could be spent on implementing the change.

The original proposal estimated the total cost of changing the system's name, including new signs and stationery, to be $42,000.

Regents voted 8-4 to change the system's name from the University and Community College System of Nevada to the Nevada System of Higher Education. Regent Tom Kirkpatrick abstained.

Regents in favor of the vote said they thought the name change would be more inclusive of Nevada State College and the Desert Research Institute.

UNR students make plea for project

Student leaders from the University of Nevada, Reno showed they had learned from their southern colleagues's mistakes when they presented a proposal for a new student union to regents Friday.

If approved by regents in March, the plan will charge a mandatory fee of $94 for full-time undergraduates for a new, $46 million student union. Teamed with a new parking garage and a library, the union will create a miniature student town at the north end of campus.

A similar plan from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to raise fees to $173 for a student union expansion and a new recreation center ran into conflict last year with the board and students. Some regents believed student opinion had not been adequately surveyed.

In addition to several student focus groups, UNR leaders surveyed students twice: first to see whether they wanted a student union and what services they wanted the union to offer, then to see if students were willing to pay for those services. Of those surveyed 78 percent favored the proposal.

Board approves college master plan

University regents Friday unanimously approved Nevada State College's master plan to built its 555-acre campus along the Black Hills of Henderson.

Regents praised the plan for taking into consideration the natural topography and desert landscaping of the acreage near U.S. 95, to be developed over the next 20 years.

The approval allows President Kerry Romesburg to continue as planned to open the college's first permanent building for liberal arts by 2006.

The college, which currently serves about 500 students, was founded in 2002 primarily for the development of teachers and nurses. Romesburg said he expect the college's enrollment to eventually grow to 25,000 students.

One of the few questions regents had was whether there were plans to improve public transportation to the site. Citizens Area Transit currently drops students off at the U.S. 95 exit for the college, but Romesburg is working with Henderson officials to build a turnaround where buses can drop students off at the campus.