Friday, May 5, 2006 | 7:37 a.m.
UNLV officials are bracing for fewer students than expected this fall, possibly leading to millions of dollars in budget cuts.
New projections indicate student enrollment is not expected to grow in the fall from a year ago, said Gerry Bomotti, vice president of finance. There's a slight chance, he acknowledged, that enrollment could shrink.
Last year, student enrollment grew by less than 3 percent, about half the rate of campus growth in previous years.
UNR and some of the state's community colleges are facing similar enrollment problems, but not as severely as UNLV.
The state funds higher education based on student enrollment, and fewer students means less money. But because of complicated funding formulas, UNLV's budget could be cut in the 2007 Legislature even if its student population grows slightly.
University provosts and deans are studying how to cut their budgets by up to 10 percent, according to administration-level e-mails obtained by the Sun.
Campus officials also are looking for ways to increase enrollment, such as adding classes to avoid turning students away from the more popular programs.
The enrollment slowdown is due in part to new, tougher admissions criteria that takes effect this fall for incoming freshmen and transfer students, said Rebecca Mills, vice president for student life.
Freshmen this fall must have a 2.75 grade point average in 13 core classes, compared with the more lax 2.5 GPA the previous year. Transfer students must have completed at least 24 units or meet the freshman GPA requirements based on their high school performance.
With applications still being processed, UNLV has offered admission to 4,900 students. Actual enrollment numbers will not be known until after registration, which begins Saturday.
By comparison, UNLV admitted 5,663 new freshmen and 3,609 transfer students in Fall 2005, and about 55 percent of those students actually enrolled.
Enrollment has decreased in part because, with the robust economy, many students are taking jobs instead. Enrollment has also been shackled by capacity issues - a lack of space and professors to offer new courses.
More than 28,000 students are enrolled at UNLV, up more than 17,000 over the last two decades.
"In 23 years, we grew by an institution larger than UNR, which is 100 years old," Bomotti said. "That is a tough rate of growth to keep up with."
The stricter admission requirements were designed to raise the academic bar at UNLV. University officials said they braced themselves for an enrollment slowdown - and an immediate loss of at least $3 million in tuition in 2006-07 .
But the real budget hit will come during the 2007 Legislature, when state lawmakers re-evaluate UNLV's budget based on the lower enrollment, Bomotti said.
UNLV's funding is based on a rolling, three-year average of its enrollment, Bomotti said. In a worst-case scenario, UNLV's current budget could be trimmed by up to $30 million during the 2008-09 biennium, Bomotti said.
UNR is facing a similar but much less drastic situation, with growth slowing from about 4 percent a year to 2 percent a year, officials there said. The Community College of Southern Nevada faced this situation last biennium after it ran out of space to accommodate new students. Its budget was drastically cut.
Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Jim Rogers said he hopes lawmakers will at least maintain current funding levels for UNLV and UNR in 2007 - if not increase it to improve their academic programs.
The university is encouraging students to apply for summer admission so it can get more students into the university before the new GPA requirements take effect in the fall.
archive
