LOOKING IN ON: HIGHER EDUCATION

Saturday, Dec. 1, 2007 | 6:59 a.m.

A paper outlining potential cuts at UNLV if the state mandates an 8 percent cut to public higher education's budget ends with a strong message, with capital letters to emphasize the point: "The impacts outlined above are DEVASTATING TO THE INSTITUTION."

University system Chancellor Jim Rogers sent the document, which also details ways UNR could slash its budget, to the governor Thursday. And in typical Rogers style the document is filled with italicized excerpts, all in capitals.

"The chancellor has an admirable flair for drama," said state Sen. Bob Beers, vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Unlike Rogers, Beers said potential cuts the document laid out don't seem "devastating."

"For as long as I've been in the Legislature, we have pumped increases well in excess of enrollment growth and inflation into higher education."

"The options here seem not to hurt students," Beers said.

To which Rogers responds, "Mr. Beers simply won't recognize the facts of life."

Among possible methods of slashing budgets, universities can reduce the number of faculty members they hire, delay the opening of new buildings and take funding from programs and student services.

The state gave the university system nearly $167.8 million in new funding for 2007-2009, a 14.5 percent increase over the previous biennium. But according to system figures, all but $3.9 million of that money was committed to specific purposes such as salary and benefits increases for staff and maintenance of new space.

So the cut to higher education the governor has proposed would force the system, officials say, to reduce existing services to students.

Rogers and university system Board of Regents Chairman Michael Wixom will meet with the governor Monday to discuss the budget.

Part of the problem, higher education officials say, is that there's no way to predict how large of a cut Gov. Jim Gibbons will ultimately request. With state revenues falling short of projections, the governor raised the proposed reduction from 5 percent to 8 percent this month.

And on Thursday, Nevada's financial outlook became even grimmer when the Taxation Department reported revenue was lagging even further behind.

Rogers said only UNLV and UNR were included in the initial document outlining potential ways to cut because of all the schools in the system those two have the largest budgets.

The other institutions will prepare similar documents by Friday, he said.

At a regents' meeting last week, College of Southern Nevada Interim President Michael Richards gave regents a taste of what could be coming.

He said an 8 percent reduction could force CSN to lay off employees and close learning sites, actions that would result in a de facto enrollment cap at the institution.

Gov. Jim Gibbons first asked colleges and universities to plan for budget cuts in October.

More than a month later, student leaders have yet to decide what actions - if any - to take in response to that request.

It's not that leaders at Nevada's colleges and universities don't feel a sense of urgency in addressing the prospect of 8 percent cuts, said Adriel Espinoza, student body president of UNLV and vice chairman of the Nevada Student Alliance, the body that represents all student body presidents in the public higher education system.

But before making a decision on how to confront the governor's request, they need more information on how reductions would affect campuses and what other students think about potential cuts, Espinoza said.

And, he said, he and other students in positions of power have been busy with other aspects of life such as final examinations.

Students have until at least January to respond. Gov. Jim Gibbons has said he won't announce finalized cuts before then.

But the clock is ticking, and according to Espinoza, student leaders statewide have been in touch with one another only informally to chat about how they might respond to possible reductions.