UNLV students feel pinch of economy in wallets and in class

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Sitting in a relatively quiet corner of the game room at UNLV’s student union, friends Tara Altizer and Arielle Dickson are finishing their lunches. Altizer is looking over a paper on gender discrimination for a women’s studies class and Dickson is surfing the Web on a laptop.

Altizer is a sophomore — she was a freshman in 2005 but took time off to get married and have a baby. She’s noticed some changes this time around. Classes fill up faster, for instance. It took her an entire day monitoring online registration before she finally found an opening for her required biology lab: Saturdays at 7:30 a.m.

“I don’t care,” says Altizer, an ’05 graduate of Rancho High School. “I’ll come anytime.”

On the days when just about everyone shows up, there aren’t enough seats to go around, and some chairs are broken. Students know not to lean back in Biology 189.

As a clinical laboratory sciences major, many of her classes depend on classroom technology. Breakdowns are commonplace.

“We lose 20 minutes at the beginning of class because things don’t work,” Altizer said.

One professor urged students to e-mail the technology support office with complaints.

Indeed, amid all the good news for UNLV in recent months — new partnerships to expand its research mission, high-dollar investments in scholarships and hitting the target of its $500 million capital campaign — significant challenges remain. The 15.4 percent state budget cut has affected programs and services and means more work for faculty and staff. It may grow worse next year.

Students are anxious too. On top of her tuition, Altizer worries about the cost of her books — more than $400 this semester. Two of the titles were new, which meant no chance at getting a cheaper, used copy.

Dickson, a UNLV freshman, doesn’t buy books until she knows she absolutely needs them. Dickson, 18, hasn’t settled on a major. She did well in her honors classes at Centennial High School and has been thinking about pre-med. Told that there is an adviser on campus who works specifically with pre-med students, Dickson jots down the name and says she might call him.

For now she’s distracted by finances.

She’s getting less help from her family and has set up a payment plan for her tuition: $300 a month.

“My mom is pressing me to get a job,” Dickson says. “I’ve tried applying everywhere — Target, the U.S. Forestry Service — but I have no prior work experience so nobody’s interested.”

The U.S. Forestry Service?

Her cousin landed a good job there, she says. Dickson hears that once you get hired part-time, you’re on the fast track to full-time employment, “and they even help with college tuition.”

“I definitely want to try and get a job,” Dickson said, as she picked through the remains of her curly fries. “You just have to look and look, wherever you can.”

That’s what it comes down to for everyone — the university, the students: the hunt for money.