Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Gibbons outlines six-step plan for higher education

Plan calls for increase in tuition, less reliance on state money

regentsgov

Steve Marcus

Governor Jim Gibbons speaks during a regents meeting at the College of Southern Nevada, Charleston campus Thursday, March 3, 2010. Standing at right is Regent Chairman James Dean Leavitt.

Updated Thursday, March 4, 2010 | 12:08 p.m.

Gibbons Speaks to Regents

Governor Jim Gibbons arrives to address a regents meeting at the College of Southern Nevada, Charleston campus Thursday, March 3, 2010. Launch slideshow »

Sun Coverage

Calling education “the intellectual infrastructure of Nevada’s future,” Gov. Jim Gibbons today proposed sweeping reforms of how the state’s public colleges and universities operate, including granting more control over finances to individual campuses and the Board of Regents.

The plan -- unveiled by the governor at the Regents meeting at College of Southern Nevada’s West Charleston campus -- is based on “flexibility, autonomy and modernization,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons’ proposal is to:

*Let individual campuses keep control of future increases in registration fees and out-of-state tuition.

*Integrate higher education employees in non-teaching positions into the higher ed’s system and out of the state’s classified personnel system.

*Exempt higher ed capital projects from the supervision and control of the State Public Works Board. The state would retain audit authority upon the project’s completion.

*Give the Regents greater flexibility in spending state dollars, provided additional accountability measures are met.

*Allow the higher ed system to keep 25 percent of its unspent general funds each year, instead of having those dollars revert to the state.

*Create a policy where the higher ed system is guaranteed a minimum appropriation, in order to bring greater stability to the long-range planning process.

All of the proposed changes would require approval by the 2011 Legislature.

If the state asks the Nevada System of Higher Education “to be more self-sufficient, it is right and reasonable that we give them the tools to effectively meet that challenge,” Gibbons said.

Click to enlarge photo

A student passes by a banner hung by students outside a regents meeting at the College of Southern Nevada, Charleston campus Thursday, March 3, 2010.

Most of the items on Gibbons’ list encapsulate suggestions that higher ed officials have been making for a number of years, said Regent James Dean Leavitt, the board’s chairman.

“We’re glad the governor has a listening ear,” Leavitt said. “This list is a good starting point for the discussion.”

During its recent special session, the Legislature cut education funding by 6.9 percent. The higher ed system’s presidents are preparing to eliminate certain programs, services and staff as a result.

Acknowledging the severity of the budget crisis, Gibbons said he would work with the Legislature to at least maintain funding levels for higher ed.

“I would like to stand before you today as governor and tell you that I can and will increase funding to higher education, which I believe is critical to our future and our economy,” Gibbons said. “Unfortunately, we simply do not have the revenue to allow me to make that promise.”

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