Thu, Jan 3, 2008 (midnight)

If UNLV is to ever achieve its stated goal of becoming a top-tier research university, it will need to increase the number of outstanding students and faculty on campus. Unfortunately, it may be shorting itself of both.

Schools offer graduate students part-time teaching or research jobs as well as free tuition to attract the best candidates. UNLV is finding itself losing out on top graduate students because it can't compete with other universities.

As Charlotte Hsu reported in Saturday's Las Vegas Sun, UNLV offers promising graduate students $10,000 to $12,000 for working the nine-month school year.

UNLV's pay lags behind the national average. Some universities pay as much as $10,000 or more a year above what UNLV offers. For example, Sarah Ziegler spent two years as a graduate assistant and earned a master's degree in biochemistry from UNLV in 2006. She left to pursue a doctoral degree in Texas where she makes $25,000 a year as a graduate assistant.

Her story is not a surprise. Faculty members say students interested in UNLV often drop out after they learn of the pay, and that is understandable. They are required to work at least 20 hours a week on campus and, by contract, are restricted to no more than 10 hours of other employment. That leaves graduate assistants going deeply into debt to make ends meet.

Such treatment leaves little incentive for graduate students to either come to UNLV or stay there to pursue a career on the faculty. And that hurts the quality of the university and its reputation.

To get the best up-and-coming graduate students, UNLV will have to find a way to be more competitive financially. That may seem implausible given that the state's budget crisis is putting a squeeze on the university's already tight budget.

If Nevada really wants UNLV to be a top-tier university, state officials and university leaders are going to have to find a way to pay better.