Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Steve Marcus / File photo
UNLV President Neal Smatresk delivers his State of the University Address at UNLV Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009. Smatresk on Monday endorsed a committee’s recommendations to cut degree programs in the face of budget cuts.
Published Monday, May 10, 2010 | 3:30 p.m.
Updated Monday, May 10, 2010 | 4:51 p.m.
Related Documents (.pdf)
Sun Archives
UNLV President Neal Smatresk today endorsed a campus committee’s recommendations to eliminate degree programs in educational leadership, marriage and family therapy, sports education leadership, recreation and sports management, informatics and urban horticulture as part of a proposal meet a 6.9 percent budget shortfall.
Smatresk said he was also planning to add clinical laboratory sciences to the recommended list of program cuts assembled by the Presidential Review Committee, made up of five members he appointed and six members chosen by the Faculty Senate. The committee consulted with academic deans, vice presidents and Provost Michael Bowers.
Smatresk will take his proposal to the Board of Regents early next month for approval. To meet the shortfall, Smatresk set a goal of cutting academic affairs spending by $4 million and trimming another $5.7 million from support areas.
“The faculty, staff and students of UNLV have shown that we can face the worst of times,” Smatresk wrote in his letter to the campus community. “I know we will all continue to work together as we reorganize our institution and implement these cuts so that we will be able to best support faculty, staff and students. Despite these challenges we remain committed to our mission to educate and serve Nevada and to create a prosperous and sustainable future.”
In an interview with the Sun, Smatresk emphasized, “I don’t want any of these programs to go … they are all solid.”
But the reality of the fiscal crisis leaves only unhappy choices, Smatresk said.
In the case of the marriage and family therapy program, the university still offers two other degrees in counseling, Smatresk said.
Several other evaluation teams recommended clinical laboratory sciences for elimination, even though it wasn’t on the Presidential Review Team’s final list.
“It’s a small number of students served in a very expensive program,” Smatresk said. “The market just hasn’t created the demand (for graduates) like it has for nursing.”
There are currently 60 undergraduates in the clinical laboratory sciences program, as well as 11 students working toward post-graduate certification. The annual budget for the program is close to $330,000.
The Clark County School District will feel the sting of losing educational leadership, which is a popular training route for educators seeking to become principals and administrators.
Even though enrollment is down in the nation’s fifth-largest school district, “Clark County still needs to train leaders,” said James Hager, a professor in residence in the educational leadership department at UNLV. “People will have to go to California, Arizona, Oregon … I don’t know that everyone can afford to do that.”
Complicating matters will be the “brain drain” if some of those future school leaders decide not to return to Nevada, said Hager, a former Washoe County superintendent.
Smatresk praised the campus community’s handling of the crisis, which is playing out at higher education institutions nationally. But nowhere are blows more punishing than in Nevada, Smatresk said.
“Managing cuts is a poor substitute for actually developing a plan and attempting to solve our problems,” Smatresk said. “We return our attention now to figuring out what we can do within the confines of the university and as a state so that we can provide the higher ed that is going to be critical to Nevada’s future. If this isn’t a call to action, I don’t know what is.”
Hager is wrong. Most Clark County Schools administrators today get their degrees at University of Phoenix or some other diploma mill, not Arizona, California, or Utah.
Based on what statistics?
The 6.9% cut is just a headliner to the main event in 2011 which is projected to result an additional 10% cut to higher-education.
Just keep cutting education. Keep digging that economic hole and you will find it harder and harder to get out.
some other diploma mill...what a shame.
With the elimination of Educational Leadership, individuals with business and industry experience will not be able to secure a teaching credential without getting another bachelor's degree. This will essentially eliminate teachers coming from industry and giving students the practical education found in the five CCSD Career and Technical Academies. CCSD will have to resort to having teachers without experience and training to fill these positions.
At least they didn't cut any of the multicultural degree programs or the diversity office. The most important thing we can produce at UNLV are people who study how not to assimilate and keep us in racial disharmony.
How can you get rid of educational leadership??? Study after study shows that a school's leader determines the school's quality of education. CCSD should fund this program instead of spending millions on poorly researched teacher intervention programs. You would get a lot more bang for your buck!
i wouldn't doubt you could get these kinds of degrees at csn
I do NOT know where President Smatrask is getting his statistics on the CLS program. We have 100% job placement within 6 months of graduation and this is because there is a GREAT need in our community for CLS professionals.
Nursing is important, sure... But without Clinical Laboratory Science, the diagnostic testing used by doctors in creating a diagnosis wouldn't be there. We preform ALL the testing your doctor needs to figure out what is wrong with you when you come to the hospital. Nurses do NOT have the education or training to do the job of a CLS professional... I would hardly believe the general public wants anyone who isn't qualified to be running their blood samples, urine samples, and tissue biopsies, and reporting that information to their doctors.
There is a Clinical Lab Science program at CSN, but that is only for the associates degree, and for a technician. UNLV has the ONLY BS for CLS, and for the technologist, it is more in-depth. Most hospitals and diagnostic centers want the technologist, because they can preform all the easy tasks a technician would do, but ALSO can read, evaluate and analyze specimens.
The CLS programs is the ONLY program in the State, and we fill a great need in the state and the health care community. President Smatrask is being extremely shallow in making his decision, even after SO much information has been given to him.
As for the general public... If we lose the CLS program... be prepared for your laboratory testing to take a LOT longer. Don't show up to a hospital with a serious illness. By the time it takes to run your samples (since the lab is so short staffed), you may become so sick, and possibly die, all because we couldn't give the doctor what he/she needed to treat you properly.
Neal has a tough job, but cuts had to be made and in my opinion, he did a good job in a tough situation.
SufferinSuccotash, you hit the nail on the head: these cuts are the result of the WORST GOVERNOR EVER.
I am a full-time faculty member at UNLV and since I stepped foot on campus in Fall 2007, UNLV's budget has been cut by over 30%. The magnitude of these cuts is impossible to wrap one's head around. In fact, I have colleagues at universities across the country who cannot believe what is happening here - it is that unprecedented.
Governor Gibbons and the NV State Legislature have decided to decimate the Nevada System of Higher Education. And now we are seeing the results of their actions. As OpenRange points out, these cuts are only a preview; next year stands to be even worse.
Young, talented faculty members see the writing on the wall and are jumping ship for universities located in states that actually VALUE higher education; students are also jumping ship. This semester alone I wrote more letters of recommendation for undergraduate students looking to transfer to universities out-of-state.
No doubt, there will be more of this. As more departments and majors are eliminated, the value of a UNLV diploma, and the UNLV brand, is cheapened, and more faculty and students will throw up their hands and leave the university, and the state of NV, in disgust.
wtk2, so, if it is so bad, why are YOU still at UNLV?
get a reality check. the President is doing vertical cuts instead of horizontal cuts. if he did horizontal cuts, then every program would suffer. IMO, he is doing the best thing possible to preserve the quality of programs that do stay. plus, IMO and experience, the junior faculty that were going to leave have mostly left by now.
nevadappleslices: I think it is YOU who needs a reality check.
Do you work in higher ed? Work at UNLV? Have a Ph.D? If you answered "no" to any of these questions, please do your homework before chiming in and lecturing me on the nature of "horizontal" versus "vertical" cuts - I am well versed in the differences.
I will be on the job market in the Fall, along with a number of other junior faculty I know. As for your statement about "the junior faculty that were going to leave" having already left - you simply don't know what you are talking about.
wtk2, pick a story and stick to it. people are leaving UNLV, or aren't they? if it's so doomsday, why didn't YOU *try* to leave sooner? was UNLV your only faculty job offer? are other universities recruiting you?
wtk2, I also wonder if you think that Gibbons should give more money to UNLV and take it away from budgets for health care, foster care, state hospitals, food for the needy... who should suffer so that UNLV doesn't have to make any cuts?
Interesting how you side stepped every one of my questions nevadaappleslices about your background and alleged "expertise" about UNLV, higher education, and the world of Ph.Ds.
As for my academic background - I came to UNLV, Ph.D. in hand, from a Big 10-Research I University three years ago; I came to UNLV, in large part, because 1) Vegas is a great location for my research and 2) there was a promise of additional hires, program growth, etc. making UNLV, at the time, an attractive and potentially vibrant place to be. Moreover, I really liked the idea of being part of a university that aspired to move from a Research II University to a Research I University. All of this has been derailed to the disappointment of EVERYONE at UNLV, from administrators to senior faculty to junior faculty, such as myself.
By the time I stepped on campus, only months after my campus visit and subsequent hire, the economic climate of the state had changed dramatically. The first year, it wasn't that bad - cuts were minimal and manageable; the second year, last year, they were worse; this year, terrible. Of course, UNLV is not unique in this respect but the set of circumstances here are, quite unfortunately, some of the worst in the county.
As for why I haven't gone back on the job market sooner: it wasn't until this academic year, only my third at UNLV, that it became abundantly clear that things were only going to get worse before they get better.
So that is my story.
If we agree on one point, it is that President Smatresk has done an admirable job managing a horrible set of circumstances - circumstances brought on, and compounded by, the inability of state leaders to take seriously the need for new revenue sources and to recognize the inherent economic value of investing in a strong system of higher education.
Respectfully,
wtk2
Having a PhD does not make you any more capable of understanding the budget cuts. Good luck with that job search, sounds like you will have 100 offers based on how wonderful you are.
Yeah, that's what I thought.