LOOKING IN ON: HIGHER EDUCATION

By Charlotte Hsu

Saturday, Dec. 8, 2007 | 7:24 a.m.

Student fee and tuition increases always hurt.

But administrators are at least trying to make sure hikes won't come as a surprise for students at Nevada's public colleges.

Representatives of a committee on student fees and tuition have begun making rounds at state schools to talk to students about potential increases for the 2009-11 biennium.

Among the committee's suggestions for students who are Nevada residents:

The committee is also suggesting that full-time undergraduates who take from 12 to 18 credits pay for 15 credits. The committee believes such a regimen could encourage students to graduate more quickly.

In an e-mail in late November to regents who govern the system of higher education, Executive Vice Chancellor Dan Klaich wrote that the recommendations could change before they reach the Board of Regents in February as committee members collect student feedback.

"This student input is critical," Klaich wrote, "and we could well come to the Board with other or further recommendations as a result of those hearings."

Who wants a job at a struggling institution?

College and university officials are worried that the prospect of 8 percent budget cuts to public higher education could hurt staff and faculty recruitment efforts.

On Friday, university system Chancellor Jim Rogers sent Gov. Jim Gibbons an analysis of how budget reductions could affect schools across Nevada. In a section about the College of Southern Nevada, the document reads, "faculty and staff recruitment are being adversely affected by speculation on budget cuts."

"One of the things we find, when we talk to applicants coming in, (is) they tend to do a lot of research," said Darren Divine, CSN's associate vice president for academic affairs.

"When you're trying to recruit people and you have headlines out there saying 'budget cuts,' you make people very nervous."

That an 8 percent budget cut at CSN could lead to layoffs makes the college even less attractive to people applying for nontenured positions, Divine added.

Bryan Spangelo, faculty senate chairman at UNLV, said cuts would complicate recruiting and hurt UNLV's research mission.

Applicants looking to do research often inquire about how much support a university offers in areas such as grant writing. UNLV already provides less support to researchers than many other institutions, Spangelo said.

A budget reduction would not only scare off job candidates but could lead to an exodus of current faculty members.

"Faculty who can leave will leave," Spangelo said. "They'll go elsewhere to do the work they need to do."

Sang Schneck, who was among students hanging out in UNLV's student union Thursday, has a story the university could use as a pitch to persuade young people to attend and stay in college.

Though she looks as if she could be 25, Schneck is 42. In her previous incarnations, Schneck worked in casinos and in real estate, making a lot of money in the process.

But she returned to school to study culinary arts because even with all her life experience, she didn't think she could realize her dream of opening a restaurant without a bachelor's degree. Investors and potential business partners want to see "credentials" in addition to experience, she said.

Asked if she wished she had gone to and finished college at an earlier stage of her life, she answered, "Absolutely."

Nontraditional students struggle to balance work, life and school, and having a bachelor's degree, she said, opens many new opportunities.