Smatresk: UNLV strong, but ‘doing more with less’

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 | 1:02 p.m.

Despite steep budget cuts, fiscal uncertainties and the challenges of an evolving mission, UNLV is standing strong, President Neal Smatresk said today in his first “State of the University” address.

Speaking without notes to a nearly full house in the main ballroom of the campus Student Union, Smatresk praised the university community for banding together to weather a tough economic season.

He also offered “thanks to our legislators … because it could have been worse.”

UNLV sustained a 15.4 percent budget cut -- $32.8 million per year. While still painful, it was anywhere from a half to a third of the reduction that had been proposed by some lawmakers.

“We can count the losses by the people who aren’t in the room with us today,” Smatresk said. “We lost 100 faculty positions and over 250 staff and academic support positions.”

At the same time, UNLV’s enrollment has increased.

“That means we are doing much more with much less,” Smatresk said. Student tuition has increased and there will likely be another hike in the near future, he said. And the optimists who believed the state’s economic forecast would brighten within the next two years are now being more pragmatic, Smatresk said.

“I don’t think any of us still believe we are looking at a two-year shortfall,” Smatresk said. “We’re going to have to work together to weather the next biennium. We’re expecting this to be a four-year situation.”

To that end, Smatresk said he’s rearranged some central office positions to reduce redundancies and maximize efficiencies. That includes giving department deans greater control over their hard budgets.

UNLV will play a key role in helping Southern Nevada not only weather the economic downturn, but to pull out of it, as well, Smatresk said. To do that, UNLV must not back away from its research mission, Smatresk said.

Newly announced partnerships with the Lincy Foundation and the Brookings Institution will help guide those goals, Smatresk said.

The university will also continue to expand its efforts to reduce remediation rates for incoming students by working closely with the Clark County School District to identify – and fill – gaps in basic skills such as reading and mathematics.

The state’s funding formula for higher ed rewards institutions that bring in the most new students, regardless of the disciplines they pursue. That has to change, Smatresk said.

It’s anywhere from two to three times as expensive for the university to add one seat to the nursing program as to add a seat in liberal arts. However, the state pays UNLV the same amount for both groups of students. UNLV can’t support the high-value research and graduate programs without the large base of financial support it gets from liberal arts and urban affairs, he said.

The state’s formula is at odds with UNLV’s goal of pursuing “quality over quantity,” Smatresk said.

“It’s the dirty little secret of higher education,” Smatresk said. “If we cut those programs, we cut the revenue stream.”

One solution might be differentiated tuition, which takes into account the costs associated with specific programs.

“We are committed to helping our Board of Regents, the Nevada System of Higher Education and the Legislature to figure out what that formula should look like,” Smatresk said.

UNLV’s future road will be determined by the campus community, Smatresk said, promising to keep the lines of communication open and to hold regular town hall meetings. He urged people to ask for such events to be scheduled “if you don’t think I’m calling them fast enough.”