Long-term goal for UNLV: Raise graduation rate

By Charlotte Hsu

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 | 2 a.m.

As they celebrated their university’s 50th birthday in the 2007-08 school year, members of the UNLV community were planning their school’s future.

They took part in 16 town hall meetings, discussing what they wanted UNLV to look like years down the line.

Taking ideas that emerged from these meetings, students, staff, faculty and others have drafted a list of goals for their institution.

Retaining and graduating more students was a major priority. The school’s six-year graduation rate is about 40 percent, half of what many of California’s public research universities achieve.

Stakeholders also wanted UNLV to invest in research in fields vital to Southern Nevada’s economy — sustainability, construction, hospitality.

Faculty members wanted more opportunities to participate in training programs that would help them teach better, develop interdisciplinary coursework and otherwise improve.

UNLV officials are scheduled to present the results of their planning process in June to the Board of Regents, which governs higher education.

The university launched the effort in the fall before state officials mandated that public agencies slash their budgets by 4.5 percent in response to falling state revenues.

With more cuts looming, it’s unlikely the university will be able to move forward quickly on many of its goals. But UNLV President David Ashley said the plan is long-range and budget reductions will affect when — but not whether — the university will make the suggested improvements.

“We’ve got a great blueprint and buy-in to a vision that will take UNLV to great places,” Ashley said.

He added that public money will not be enough to make UNLV a top-tier research institution.

“More and more,” he said, “we’re going to have to depend on the private (sector) to support our ambition of excellence.”

•••

Carolyn Yucha, UNLV nursing dean, knows all about how private dollars can help bolster a public program.

Sierra Health Services and UnitedHealthcare have committed to giving $100,000 annually over the next five years to raise the pay of nursing graduate students who teach and conduct research for the university.

Nursing master’s students who work as graduate assistants for UNLV typically receive $15,000 per year each, Yucha said. Their counterparts in the doctoral program typically get $18,000 each.

Instead of taking that money, many nursing graduate students opt to go to school part time while earning good pay as full-time nurses.

“They’re out working full time and then they’re going to school part time and then they never get done,” Yucha said. “What I really need is something to motivate them to go to school full time.”

The Sierra Health Services and UnitedHealthcare gift will help support four students annually.

Each year, two master’s students will each receive $20,000 of the private money, boosting their pay to $35,000 apiece. Two doctoral candidates will each get $30,000 in private funding, bringing their earnings to $48,000 apiece.

•••

Given the state of the housing market, the course titles seem apt: “Facing foreclosure,” “Life after foreclosure” and “Selling a home in a buyer’s market” are some of them.

These one-day classes are part of a “homeowner series” the College of Southern Nevada launched this month, hoping to help real estate professionals, homeowners and home buyers navigate today’s real estate market.

So far, though, enrollment has been disappointing. Two classes were canceled because of low interest, said JJ Sanchez, a workforce specialist with CSN’s division of workforce and economic development who helped develop the series.

She believes people might be reluctant to enroll because of the social stigma that can be attached to foreclosure.

“It’s probably difficult to come into a room and say, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m facing foreclosure, I just went through foreclosure,’ ” she said.

For more information on the courses, visit www.csn.edu/pages/773.asp and click on the link titled “Homeowner Series.”