higher education:

Administrators say proposed cuts too much to withstand

Hundreds hear the hurt a 36 percent funding decrease would bring

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Las Vegas Sun

Jim Rogers, chancellor of Nevada’s public higher education system, speaks with Gerry Bomotti, UNLV vice president of finance and business, and UNLV President David Ashley, right, before a town hall meeting Monday in the UNLV Student Union.

By Charlotte Hsu (contact)

Monday, Jan. 26, 2009 | 9:27 p.m.

"Education in Crisis" - Town Hall Meeting

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College students band together, rally against budget cuts (1-22-2009)
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Emotional farewells at Regent’s meeting (12-5-2008)
Rogers to budget cut protestors: Glad you’re here (12-4-2008)
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Some say setting fees every two years gives universities a blank check (2-16-2008)

At a town hall meeting at UNLV on budget cuts Monday night, a member of the audience asked why Nevada didn’t implement a new corporate tax to help finance education.

Jim Rogers, chancellor of Nevada’s public higher education system, responded, “We are proposing every kind of tax we can think of.”

His comments drew laughter and claps from an audience of about 600 people who packed a campus ballroom to hear Rogers, Regents Chairman Michael Wixom and the presidents of the College of Southern Nevada, Nevada State College, UNLV and Desert Research Institute talk about budget cuts.

The tone of that exchange was indicative of the tone of the 1 1/2 hour event.

Time and time again, Rogers, Wixom and the presidents emphasized that the higher education system could not sustain the 36 percent cut in state funding that the governor proposed in his budget.

And time and time again, the audience seemed to agree.

That perhaps was no surprise given the magnitude of potential cuts. UNLV President David Ashley said eliminating all faculty salaries and benefits would not save the university enough money to meet the governor’s proposed reduction, which for UNLV would total about 50 percent of its state funding.

“It’s not a proposal that makes any sense,” Ashley said of the governor’s budget.

In a press release Monday, the meeting was billed as a way for higher education officials to seek “community input and ideas related to the state’s budget crisis.”

Though participants offered a variety of ideas, almost all centered on finding new sources of money for higher education — higher taxes, more fundraising, higher student fees. Speakers exhorted the audience to contact legislators to fight cuts.

The event was the second in several days that revealed strong opposition to budget cuts within Nevada’s higher education system. On Thursday, more than 3,000 demonstrators, including students from Southern Nevada’s three public colleges, gathered at UNLV to protest reductions.

But preventing cuts will not be easy. Opposition to new taxes has traditionally been fierce in Nevada, and the gaming industry, small businesses and other interest groups all will be lobbying legislators as they grapple with the state’s budget crisis.

On Monday, Victor Joecks, a spokesman for the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a free-market think tank, provided a taste of the debate that, perhaps, is yet to come.

Taking the microphone as a member of the audience, Joecks asked Rogers to outline what cost-savings the higher education system planned to implement in light of the cuts.

Rogers responded that the system was working to become more efficient, but refused to provide specific saving plans.

Discussion: 8 comments so far…

By letsgetreal

1/26/09 at 10:17 p.m.

Suggest removal

How about reinvesting the $1,000,000 that the UNLV Research Foundation is about to blow on the absolutely useless Harry Reid Research Park? It's a start!
By getalife

1/26/09 at 10:47 p.m.

Suggest removal

"letsgetreal",Because Harry Reid has his name on it.

"Rogers responded that the system was working to become more efficient, but refused to provide specific saving plans".

He (Rodgers) is great at throwing bombs and acting like he is in stage one dementia but when it comes to real solutions he goes quiet.

I do not support Jim "the gibbon" gibbons and think he spends more time texting love notes than governing, but to throw him in front of the bus because Rodgers says so is just as extreme.
By revtomperl

1/26/09 at 11:01 p.m.

Suggest removal

Sometimes the comments on these articles are spurious. Looky, the system needs 2 or 3 billion to make it competitive. If you are happy with a second or third rate system, then you must wear it. Rogers is an intelligent wealthy generous man. Gibbons is something other than intelligent and generous except with love notes. Ok, geaux rebels!
By KDR81

1/27/09 at 7:36 a.m.

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http://npri.org/blog/why-higher-educatio...

Higher education will be no worse off for funding than in 2001-2003 and that is after adjusting for inflation. Higher education got a massive increase in spending in recent years and it blew the money.

Now, unless our leaders are not as smart as they claim to be, they can figure out how to cut costs and operate just as well if not better than in 2003.
By KDR81

1/27/09 at 7:37 a.m.

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Talk about spurious, where did you get that $2 billion figure from, your butt?
By fred

1/27/09 at 10:04 a.m.

Suggest removal

KDR81,

UNLV will lose $100 million is Gibbon's plan is put into effect. Over half of its operating budget! And if you want to remain attached to rather uninformed economic explanation that the university will no worse off for funding than in 2001-2003 (your wrong about the adjustment for inflation by the way, it would a substantial loss of nearly $50 million) you must realized that higher education was underfunded even five years ago.
By getalife

1/28/09 at 6:59 p.m.

Suggest removal

I think they meant understand, the college is packed with pork as it is.
By johnnevada

1/29/09 at 11:13 p.m.

Suggest removal

Take a look at what kind of education NSC has been offering. It claims to have a Bachelors of Business Administration degree program. Now take a look at the permanent faculty for the business administration program: http://www.nsc.nevada.edu/Academics/Prog...

Yes, you read it right. There is a Dr. Moore who has a PhD in Economics and "does not have an office on campus". And then there is a Grace Thomson for who no qualifications at all are listed. Why? Because (as it turns out by researching her name on the internet) she has a MBA from Ecuador!!! And she is pursuing an "online PhD" from the University of Phoenix. Worth noting that any school with standards refuse to employ "online PhDs" like Phonenix, DeVry etc.

So NSC has been handing out Business Administration Bachelors degrees with one faculty who has a MBA from Ecuador and another who doesn't have a campus office. Bulk of courses are taught by underpaid adjuncts who have no incentive to provide quality.

So does NSC lack faculty because it is short of money? No!!!

It has enough money to advertise for and hire "Institutional Research Director" whose pay scale is to be "$79,000 - $99,000 per year".

Normally when one says "Research" and "American Higher Education" in the same sentence, one gets visions of academics in labs conducting research and motivating their students to discover new subjects. For NSC "Research" means that the function of the "Institutional Research Director" is to twist the data to produce reports that show that the wretched college is doing an acceptable job.

The NSC president shows no desire to hire faculty to teach students. Instead he has a "Institutional Research Director" to produce reports.

We citizens of Nevada deserve better.