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UNLV President Neal Smatresk delivers his State of the University Address in this Sept. 15, 2009 file photo. On Tuesday he proposed a “financial exigency” plan in response to proposed budget cuts.
Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Related Document (.pdf)
Sun Coverage
Sun archives
- Regent says it’s time that K-12 shares in budget sacrifice (2-8-2011)
- Higher education officials say Sandoval budget cuts a ‘death sentence’ (2-4-2011)
- Education in forefront of upcoming budget battle (1-30-2011)
- Chancellor: University tuition would have to go up 73 percent to cover Sandoval budget gap (1-27-2011)
- A steep climb for Nevadans (1-26-2011)
- Soft words during State of the State hide Nevada in pain (1-25-2011)
In what must have been one of his most painful tasks in office, UNLV President Neal Smatresk warned faculty leaders Tuesday to prepare for a budget catastrophe — news that left some in tears.
Smatresk at times sounded almost in mourning as he spoke to the Faculty Senate, saying he had instructed his provosts to start planning for more cuts in staff, departments and programs.
The faculty was angry and indignant.
“I’m sick we are destroying much of what we’ve built,” said Cecilia Maldonado, an educational-leadership professor and chairwoman of the Senate.
“This amounts to foreclosure,” said Greg Brown, a history professor and president of the Nevada Faculty Alliance, a professor group.
Michael Bowers, UNLV’s provost, noted that UNLV is 54 years old and that he has worked there 27 years. “I never thought this day would come, but we have to plan,” he said.
The emotional display was unprecedented, Bowers said after the meeting, “because we’ve never had a situation like this before.”
He has asked five senior officials, including the athletic director, to identify cuts by Feb. 25 because $25 million in cuts have to be planned for by this July and $22.5 million by next July, the start of another fiscal year.
“We have to have a plan in place immediately,” Bowers said.
In an e-mail to deans and vice provosts, Bowers said, “The central teaching and research mission of UNLV should be protected as best as possible.”
He set general goals for cuts at 22 schools, departments and programs, with the larger targets exceeding $2 million.
The biggest target was on the College of Liberal Arts at $3.8 million. Other large targets were $2.9 million for the dental school, $2.8 million for libraries and $2.8 million for the College of Sciences.
Smatresk’s words were the grimmest yet in the agony over how the state’s fiscal crisis will play out within the ranks of higher education. Already, curricula have been slashed and faculty layoffs may be inevitable.
Under what is known as “financial exigency,” lifetime appointments could be broken and tenured professors more easily dismissed. In that case, whole departments and programs could close down with greater speed.
This month, the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents said it would be premature to consider such a move until the Legislature approves a final budget.
Smatresk told the Faculty Senate that the cuts at UNLV could total $47.5 million over the next two years. So a plan for financial exigency would have to be prepared, he said. That sum for two years nearly matches the $50 million in cuts over the past four years, mostly in nonacademic areas and mostly avoiding large cuts in professor positions.
The emotion followed soon after Smatresk’s announcement, when Bowers said the cuts would need to come mainly from academic programs as soon as this year.
“These targets will be painful to meet,” Bowers said, his voice beginning to break. “I’ve asked the deans to do the best they can.”
The emotion built again when Maldonado read a list of grievances, each beginning with “I’m sick.”
She said she is sick of politicians caricaturing professors with “our fat salaries and easy living.”
She said she is sick that the public doesn’t seem to understand the importance of higher education.
John Filler, a special-education professor and former chairman of the Faculty Senate, said, “There is nothing that we’ve done to deserve this.” His voice broke, people applauded.
“I can’t believe the taxpayers will let this happen but if they do,” Filler said, “let’s make sure this doesn’t happen without a fight.” More applauded.
In his brief address, Smatresk noted that he had been monitoring the first few days of the legislative session. He added, “I believe the proposed cuts could materialize.”
“It’s very clear our state is approaching a state of fiscal collapse” when it comes to education, Smatresk said.
The cuts, Smatresk said, will lead to a “smaller, more expensive, more selective institution.”
In a voice heavy with sadness, Smatresk said: “A white knight will not come in and dramatically change the situation.”
Actions such as these will always create an opposite and non-linear reaction without predictability. This is point where forces at a singularity known in the imaginary plane jump out with a wallop and begin to drive real world oscillations without mercy.
You would think that educated people would understand the concept that if the money isn't there you can't spend it. That's the result of not living in the real world.
This whole catastrophe thing wears a bit thin after a while. We'll work through this whole budget thing.
Its not just faculty this would impact. This plan presumes significant fee increases for students and the loss of at least a dozen departments and all degree programs in those departments. UNLV would be reduced by about 6000 students per year, greatly reducing the range of offerings for students and significantly diminishing the number of educated workers in the region. We're already at the bottom of all states for % of population with degrees or attending college and with UNLV greatly reduced, we'll fall farther behind every other state. For more on what exigency is and what it will mean for southern Nevada, see http://unlvfaculty.blogspot.com
One other point to prove this isn't really about simply cuts to faculty but about destroying the future of the state. Only two days ago, advocates for high-tech industries which the state is trying to recruit, called for NV to invest in higher education to produce a better trained workforce.
http://unlvfaculty.blogspot.com/2011/02/...
gohugatree...
Contrarily, educated people may understand that stupid is as stupid does, and that the powers that be can't see the forest for the trees.
Massive educational cuts in Nevada right now is akin to helping a starving person by witholding their rations...
gmag39: I'm all for education, but basic math (which our President and other liberals don't seem to comprehend) prevents the same amount of spending as previous years. If it were up to me I would sacrifice money spent on all the welfare programs and put it toward education. Unfortunately the same people that don't want education cut, also don't want the free handouts cut either.
we all can thank our governor...
greasy brian...
a slippery slimy phony smiling huckster...
who would rather protect mining...
than the children of the state he serves...
got that...
let that sink in today...
greasy brian values his campaign contributions from mining...
more than the children of the state he serves...
what a greasy governor he is...
nothing but a greasy governor with a phony smile...
Representative democracy is so problematic. We the people have chosen to elect people who represent and exploit our fears, and who seek only their own re-election and their own rewards. Instead, we should elect people who will lead us, who will work for the long term good of all of us, who will have access to better information than I have, and who will educate me so that I will understand why they are voting they way they are.
I wonder what the effect on local business will be by removing $47 million just from UNLV? How much will the total for Las Vegas be? I hope the rurals get to experience the decrease as well to appreciate how state money doesn't go into a black hole.
Typical response to budget cuts ---- The world is coming to an end, we have a disaster on our hands.
Scare tactics?
Ms. Maldonado
I am sick of the lack of leadership in higher education and whining. Yes, everyone is taking hits, including higher education. 15 Percent of your neighbors are unemployed. The homes in foreclosure. The kids can't read and write, after 12 years of public education. You can't seriously tell me that higher education has suffered more than any of these groups. I am sick of your portrayal as victim. Get over the victimization deal because there a lot of people in front of you in victimization line.
We will be measured by how we respond to these setbacks in terms of taking positive and proactive to respond to these challenges. Don't make those who follow us sick by a lack of resolve to meet the challenges before us today.
Let's see some positive ideas from the facualty at UNLV. Time for everyone to dig a little deeper.
I don't feel bad for colleges. If you are so worried about the students, try making degrees only 2 years instead of 4. Why do people have to take 2 years of things that they just took in K-12? That would mess up the B.S. game that teachers & unions are playing. Why are people leaving colleges ABSOLUTELY BURIED in debt and can't get $10 an hour jobs, even in a decent economy? Slash the hell out of the colleges.
If there was "value" to the education they were providing, people will pay for it. It is their own fault that they have not improved UNLV to the point where people actually want to attend and value what they get. Why don't you just stop taking everyone who applies and start taking people that actually have a hope of gaining something from the "higher education"? This program of taking anyone who could basically sit through 4 years at a Nevada high school is stupid and expensive.
It all forces UNLV to graduate a certain percentage of morons (that never should have attended college), and when the outside world employs these people, we assume everyone that attends your school is sub standard.
Raise your standards, raise your tuition, get some professors with brains.
Turrialba, you have know idea how deep Nevada faculty and administrators are already digging with the previous cuts.
I give tremendous credit to all higher education workers for the positive ideas they've already been forced to implement. It's been rough to this point, and yes, this new wave of cuts is catastrophic.
Curly they are leaving college with no job prospects because they did not choose majors wisely or they didnt understand the magnitude of the situation they were in. The University is a place to learn and network, listen to whats hot and whats not in the creative class world. Yes i agree if you go to college and graduate with a Drama or History degree your not going to be very marketable but if you bust your arse pick up a foreighn language and not spanish(Arabic,Chi,Urudu,Per,Pashto,Rus), grap a couple certs that are not in your field, double major, grab a minor that is worth your while, start a club and do internships while your a Jun or Sen. Better yet. Join the ARMY for the GI BILL then when you get out in a few years you will have all of your school payed for and you will have the mental stamina to get the most out of your College education. That being said College isnt for everyone and i wish everyone a great day.
They may not have the money to educate kids, but at least they're plowing ahead with that new stadium.
Meanwhile, Kirk Kerkorian has donated his Lincy Foundation money not to UNLV but to UCLA. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-14...
Perhaps one change will call for "professors" teaching more than three classes (9 hours of class time) per week.
The road to recovery is through "financial exigency". There are no sacred cows any more.
There is an educational leadership program? Now is the time to demonstrate to the world what leadership is about.
The finacial problems at UNLV are no different than other cities, states, businesses, households and countries.
You seem to forget that while the population supports government, we still need to support our own families.
In response to the claim by many that the US is in a decline that they will not be able to recover from the BBC had a key point to make:
"The US has some key advantages in a world of digital knowledge and technology.
Virtually all the world's great universities are there and, as Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton says, one of the first things they teach is to question the teacher.
This, she says, is the US's crucial advantage.
"I don't think we're the only nation that can invent great technologies, I don't think we have a lock on intelligence or education," she says.
"But that cultural characteristic of welcoming, indeed requiring, the challenging of authority - in a world where knowledge, ideas, innovation is the currency - we're very well placed.
"We need to renew our social contract, our infrastructure, our physical infrastructure, our education infrastructure, our health infrastructure.
"There's a great deal of work to do, but we are not losing the capability to do it."
Take that, declinists! The United States' greatest days are ahead" perhaps. . . . "
Difficult times take strong people to make hard choices and survive. UNLV is strong - the budget cuts will be hard but this is part of life. Hard times allows us to cull out the weak and the parts that don't work and concentrate and strengthen the parts that do work. If you address these cuts with skill and ingenuity, you'll come out stronger in the end. Quit weeping and gnashing your teeth, buck up and get the job done!
John Filler, a special-education professor and former chairman of the Faculty Senate, said, "There is nothing that we've done to deserve this." His voice broke, people applauded.
"I can't believe the taxpayers will let this happen but if they do," Filler said, "let's make sure this doesn't happen without a fight." More applauded.
These people do not live in the real world. Do they actually think the university is entitled to unlimited taxpayer funding?
If you plan for tomorrow without investing in your future you are doomed to fail.
clundgren;
Yes, the USA does have an advantage over the rest of the world that a few (a small few) people here are creative and invent things that the rest of the world wants. But what does that have to do with UNLV?
It is not exactly educating these type of people
Most of the comments on this page show ignorance of how drastic and debilitating the governor's proposed cuts will be to higher education in Nevada. Added to what already has been cut, they amount to 50% over the space of four years -- the most radical budget cuts to any higher education system in the country (and probably in the world). And the posts that cite in-class hours for classroom teaching are the most ignorant: 9 hours in the classroom requires on average 3 hours prep per hour at the college level; then the obligation to research, publish, and mentor graduate student research adds another 20 hours per week; 3 hours per week undergraduate advising; 3 hours per week on committee work or service obligations for the institution; then outside service to the profession in the scholarly fields, 3-5 hours -- add it up, and you get an average 55-65 hour work week for faculty. Toss the research mission into the trash and UNLV will become what it was 40 years ago -- little more than a glamorized Mormon high school (and this crack is meant to compliment members of the LDS church, who have consistently believed in and supported education). But I suppose that's what citizens of Nevada want: a fancy high school, not a real university. And in the end, our students will suffer the most intense pain.
With the slow and low graduation rate, it seems appropriate to make UNLV a smaller, more selective, and focused university. IMO, Why don't these professors and administrators come up with a plan to make UNLV a place where the majority of students are successful?
douglas;
Good point, UNLV's main problem IS that it is equivalent to a high school in terms of quality when compared to other states. Everyone in administration had years to change this and they just collected fat paychecks and assumed the handouts were perpetual.
Well, they cannot be. Without REVENUE, we cannot hand you more money. It is not possible. Figure that out and deal with it.
If the education you are providing makes the students MONEY, they will pay for it. If UNLV is little more than a daycare center, then the students will want it to remain cheap.
Rick,
The Educational Leadership program was already cut, along with Sports Ed. Leadership, as a result of last round's budget. The last day for those programs is at the end of this semester. Other colleges experienced similar eliminations.
For all,
The faculty have not been idle during the past two years. They have been making decisions to cut programs, have already taken on additional teaching loads, and reorganizing entire colleges, schools, and units.
And here's one other point to consider: many faculty are interviewing elsewhere, but their vacant positions at UNLV aren't being filled. This leaves huge holes because the best faculty are leaving. However, their teaching, administrative, and service responsibilities are staying behind. This spreads faculty out even more and dilutes students' quality of education further.
I know that I cannot change people's minds about the importance or relevance of a high quality university in their city, but I thought I would try to point out that a) the cuts are serious (and the second string of such cuts), b) faculty are doing what they can to make sense of it in a positive way, and c) UNLV would be substantially diminished as a result of this proposal.
I love it when academics finally have to deal with the real world. Those ivory towers and crumbling and maybe the universities that come out of it intact will actually educate students to cope with the real world. But since academics never had to deal with it, they didn't know how to do that. Maybe now they'll get a clue.
The Nevada constitution authorizes a university in RENO, not elsewhere. ELIMINATE HIGHER ED FUNDING.
Education does NOT bring jobs. Chicken and egg problem here. Educated people go to the jobs. Just ask Milton Glick, UNR President. It is NOT the taxpayers job to send your kids to college. We made sacrifices to go to college, you can do the same without government grants, loans, assistance.
Liquidating bankruptcy.
The Nevada constitution authorizes a university in Reno only. ELIMINATE STATE FUNDING FOR HIGHER ED. It is not our job to send your kids to college. It is not our job to pay out-of-touch professors and administrators. Per Milton Glick, President of UNR, people follow the jobs, not the other way around. If educators had any clue, we'd see SOME RESULTS but where are the results?
Many of Smatresk's UNLV Vice Presidents and his 'cabinet' have been there far too long:
http://go.unlv.edu/president/cabinet.
They should consider retirement or resignation, and the University should recruit new, top-level administrators (if any can be found willing to come to UNLV, but that's another problem). Fresh ideas with energy will be required to rebuild UNLV after its apparently inevitable collapse. Although these cabinet members are not directly to blame for the current crisis, UNLV desperately needs new ideas, directions, and new top level administrators NOW.
the majority of comments here are disgusting and disheartening. If you think that having an educated workforce would not bring businesses to Nevada you need to have your head examined.
As a UNLV student, I'm disheartened and angry. The tuition is already comparative to much better schools elsewhere in the country and quite frankly, UNLV is not up to par. Unfortunately, it is the only credible school to choose from in the area. So if someone wants to get a higher degree, they are stuck with UNLV as their only choice. Like so many of my classmates, I plan to get my degree that won't be worth the paper it is printed on and then getting out of this town, and get my masters at a better university in order to make up for UNLV mistake.
How about you start producing graduates that contribute directly to the tax base. Proprietary colleges get this, and have retention and placement rates to prove it!
to Noindex,
State universities and colleges ARE funded by taxpayer dollars - and student tuition and fees. UNLV is a state university, therefore.
And for those grumbling about 9 hours of teaching - don't forget the preparation, the grading, the meetings with students, and the requirement to do research and publish. Nine hours in the classroom is only a small percentage of the professor's work week. Only the undereducated don't understand that. And no, I'm not a professor trying to justify my existence.
Things will get better Vegas, don't you worry!
People who claim that higher education should get cut along with everything else because times are tough are both right and wrong...
Yes, higher education should suffer some as a result of a tough economy. Universities and colleges around the country are suffering.
No, NSHE and UNLV should NOT be sacrificed and carry a disproportionate amount of the budget cuts that are tantamount to stepping back 10-20 years.
When times are tough, you stop dining out and cut the cable bill, you don't sell the car that takes you to work every day or stop taking vital medications to keep you alive. If Nevada is going to have a diversified and stable economy, we need to continue to invest in higher education.
Consider this quote from an article discussing high-tech firms that won't come to Nevada even with attractive tax breaks:
"Business leaders from several large technology companies said today that Nevada lacks the skilled workforce necessary for them to locate in Nevada over the long-term."
If we don't develop our universities into top-notch programs, our economy will perpetually struggle.
True leadership means making the hard choices and then living with them. The reason we're in this mess is because of lilly-livered politicians and administrators who could see the coming budget shortfalls and economic woes, but didn't have the guts to address them. (kicking the can down the road) Now, everyone, including our paltry higher education system, has to suffer. Of course, maybe if Nevada wasn't on the hook to the Feds for millions in unemployment payouts, we wouldn't have to cut so many programs. If you're sitting at home reading this while you collect your unemployment welfare check (because it's more than you could earn flipping burgers), know that you're partly to blame.
Truly challenging times ahead for educators and students--at all levels in all states. In California, proposed $1.5 billion cuts in state university funding will mean 350,000 students in 112 schools will not have access to a public supported college education.
Elementary, middle school, high school, and adult education programs are being consolidated or dropped.
America is reeling to hard times. When times get tough, the tough get tougher. We will emerge as a leaner, meaner nation. We always have.
From the New York Times:
"The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976." Certainly the same for Nevada.
Sun Headline: "51% of all home sales are now made with cash". That means there are more investors in Las Vegas with $120,000-$150,000 liquid cash to pick up an investment then real home owners that need to borrow.
It's tough taking money away from those who need to support their families during these tough times - especially while their families are vacationing in the Caribbean, Bermuda, Kathmandu or Australia.
There is no longer a need for Nevada State College.. If the state is having to make drastic budget cuts then the first thing they should do is close the doors of NSC.. UNLV is diluted with too many bad students who ultimately drop out so I would suggest raising the entrance requirements as well.. The University, like many other businesses in Las Vegas, was a victim of it's own success and got too big, too fast. The administration needs to view these cuts as a reason to streamline and impove the quality of the University instead of crying about the loss of money they used for useless, underachieving programs.
These cuts are IN ADDITION to a 27 percent cumulative budget cut since 2007-approximately $50 million. This would put UNLV's budget cuts to nearly $100 million!! How can we build a strong economy without an educated workforce and resources! Other cities -- like Pittsburgh when it saw the decline of the steel industry -- invested in higher education. Those states are doing better than Nevada.
try cutting the bloated salaries of your staff
http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/un...
Despite all of the melodrama UNLV is in the wrong in this situation.
To begin with, here is a quote from an article in this very paper earlier this week: "UNLV confirmed last week it is in discussions with Los Angeles billionaire Ed Roski as part of a "public-private partnership" to build a multipurpose sports and entertainment complex near campus..."
First of all they seem to think that they'll be able to raise public funds for a sports arena and at the same time have a billionaire in their pocket willing to give them lots of cash. So why was anyone crying during that speech? Why is the President of UNLV putting pressure on the state?
UNLV's elephant in the room is its dropout rate. When you can't retain students, for one reason or another, you won't get revenue. Additionally, it wouldn't kill them to raise the tuition fees a bit. I said a bit. You see in the real world in order to attend college you have to have had good grades in school. If you had good grades in school you're generally eligible for at least some financial assistance. If all college students were rich there wouldn't be very many college students in the world now would there? The students need to understand that they are paying far below the national average and anyone can attend a class at UNLV with little to no record of previous academic performance.
They have never bothered in all of these years to create an academic program to make UNLV a desirable school for out of state students. They have no true campus culture and the distractions of Las Vegas have always been a problem in keeping students focused and in the classroom.
Every University President in the world is responsible for fundraising and developing philanthropic participation by its alumni and community members. Now why in the world would you waste your time going out and trying to raise money for a sports arena when the Mayor has been proposing for years to build one not six miles away? The entire UNLV staff and faculty must be in La La Land. You can't stand up there and preach gloom and doom and have weeping instructors when you just bragged a few days before that you've got a billionaire lined up to give you money for something we don't need.
Yes it sucks that the economy is the way it is. Yes it sucks that the Governor is going to have to make some tough decisions but if UNLV had been cultivating and turning out a successful alumni base for the past 20 years then they'd have a money pool to draw from. As it is, the "university" is a joke. If this guy can't figure out how to make things work then he doesn't belong in higher education.
There are too many students in college in this country, including at UNLV. College costs too much and it's increasingly not worth it for many students -- at this point everyone knows a history, English or political science major with 50K in debt and no job.
The market is sending signals that a) there are too many people in college and b) students aren't getting enough value for the debt they take on. A healthy market would see colleges contract, and yes some would close because they're not needed.
In a sick market, like the one we have in America today, the federal government would continue to fund far more students than are necessary -- and overcharge them wildly, to boot -- by loaning virtually anyone money for college (but kids: that debt can't be discharged in bankruptcy!).
With the internet and other technological advances, it's increasingly unfeasible for large numbers of young people to spend four years drinking and getting a 2.8 GPA in psych or philosophy.
Those professors out of a job shouldn't blame society for supposedly not caring about higher education. They should blame the government intervention in the college market -- cartelizing the college degree in the first place, then Sallie Mae putting way more students in college than the market can bear -- for incentivizing them to malinvest their own careers in an unsustainable bubble.
I can't stop thinking about this...
Nine hours a week of classroom time (but for every hour we need at least three for prep, etc. etc.). That makes 27 hours. Go lay that BS on a minimum wage single mother who has to work two jobs at 60 hours a week to keep her family alive.
These people are galling. I care a great deal about education in America. I think it's become one of our greatest failings in the past 25 or so years. But how dare you insinuate that because you became lazy and complacent in your job that people by and large "don't care about education" or aren't educated themselves. Educated people can clearly see the failings of UNLV.
We have been oversold on the benefits of education. It is not the taxpayers job to send your kids to college. Stop Class Size Reduction funding--16:1, SIXTEEN STUDENTS PER TEACHER in elementary school. Some districts have applied for waivers of 19:1 but this is RIDICULOUS WASTE OF MONEY.
Education funding & the future:
Funding: There is nothing prohibiting individuals from funding the educational or religious services of their particular choice, while forcing individuals through legislative mandates to fund educational services is wrong and needs to be abolished.
Future: The technologies today as well as those which will be developed in the near future present an enormous opportunity in disseminating educational services efficiently as well as economically to the masses -- the individuals of the future will primarily be taught by machines not in classrooms by teachers.
Over the past couple days the game show Jeopardy has been offering a view of the future with regard to such machine technology -- the episodes are entitled the IBM challenge which pins the top two Jeopardy champions (human minds) of all-time against a machine called Watson -- the final episode airs this evening to answer if machines can really compete against the best human minds in a game demanding high intellect -- certainly a recommended viewing for those who may be interested in a glimpse of what currently exists as well as the potential which tomorrow promises with regard to machine verse human intelligence.
Life is a journey of continuous learning - feed your mind - online.
: {
@ sportyyetpractical:
Actually, 9 hours in the classroom plus 3 prep hours per classroom yields 36, not 27.
Also, you assume that college professors are teachers, which ignores much of what they do. For most research-active professors, they spend at least as much time conducting research as they do on teaching. If you take teaching, research, and other activities (e.g., university committees, student mentoring) into account, good professors work just as hard as anyone else.
I wholeheartedly agree that UNLV could stand to lose some students at the bottom of the entrance distribution and to drop some faculty and administrators, but the cuts being proposed are ridiculous.
(I hadn't thought about this before seeing UNLV-123's comments above, but I do wonder why CSN and UNLV are both needed for this area. Could funds be saved and the same students served if one of the institutions was closed down?)
roseanrose: Once again, you are showing that you don't have a clue what goes on in the CCSD. There may be a law regarding class size reduction, but it certainly isn't being followed. I taught first and second grade and I ALWAYS had more than 16 students.
Just another reason why we sent our kid out of state for college. UNR was on the table but UNLV no way- as far as we could see, it is a "glorified high school" right now...sad.
Are college graduates going to get a decent paying job after they graduate? NO, most will not.
It is now time to defund colleges.
Jerry Wayne --
No one is saying that higher education is unimportant.
We are saying that 1) there are too many students in college for whom it doesn't make financial sense to be there 2) colleges including UNLV aren't providing enough value for their extremely high cost 3) so many students are or know someone who recently graduated with 50K or more in debt and a not-very-useful degree in psych, history, political science, philosophy, etc. and so are questioning seriously whether it's worth the debt and 4) technological advances centered on the internet are providing equal or better educational options for far less than schools like UNLV.
It was fun while it lasted, I guess -- students drinking for 4 years, going Greek, attending football games and getting a 2.8 GPA in English or Art History and it making economic sense. And professors to pull in 200K (see UNLV salary linked to upthread -- wow!) with tenure even! But that particular party is over now.
The national unemployment rate for college graduates is 4%, while for non-college graduates it is 14%.
Sure, who needs higher ed. in Nevada.
See "unemployment by educational attainment":
http://www.online-stock-trading-guide.co...
How many of those employed college graduates are using their degrees, lvsreader? How many of them could have done the same work without a college degree -- and without all that debt?
Gold companies will extract $4 billion in profits from Nevada this year and $4 billion next year.
A 7% Gross profits tax would provide $560 million dollars over the two year budget cycle. Currently the mines will pay about $120 million.
$440 million extra dollars would help many institutions in this state and the mines would still be going strong.
As a recent graduate of UNLV that dealt with the constant bombardment of budget cuts and rising tuition, I can say I am sick of it all!
Too many people here say get rid of UNLV and UNR, let students go out-of-state, etc. I'll tell you first off I wanted to go out of state. If states removed out-of-state tuition then you would see students leave in droves.
I can look back and say that I wished my parents hadn't moved us to Las Vegas and stayed in VA. We lived in one of the top counties for education in the U.S. to come to one of the worst! VA has a massive amount of great schools and I would have received in-state tuition.
I can say now that I will look for a career in a state that cherishes education both K-12 and Higher. So that when I have children and they are ready to go to a University they will have more options (more than two at least), better schools, a state that supports higher education rather than dismantling it and a far more diverse economy!!!
Why is it that UNLV says it can't cut anywhere? It was said they have employees amount for 1 out of every 7 students?
There are plenty of areas that can be cut without hurting a quality education.
Try cutting administration and put it in line with regular business.
But don't worry! That new expensive football stadium will still be built!
What this has to do with education will require another study...
I agree, they don't even humor us that anything can be cut. Nope, there isn't anything that can possibly be cut.... go take the money from the funds that are supposed to help the disabled, foster care, and so on and reallocate them.
These things are not adequately funded. UNLV and UNR should suspend operation and fund the junior college student so there is some opportunity even though it is inadequate. Oh, impeach the governor and install Rory - the man with a plan.
What does the UNLV president make? Probably 300,000 or more!
They sure found money for a new stadium though!
"I love it when academics finally have to deal with the real world."
Dear Mr. Griffith,
Where exactly is this "real world" of which you speak? I live in Las Vegas. Where do you live? For all you know, I'm your neighbor.
I live in a stucco house with a red tiled roof, commute to UNLV, pay hundreds of dollars a year for the privilege of parking where I work, get stuck in traffic every day at the airport tunnel. My house is worth one third what I paid for it. I can somehow spend $60 at the grocery store and leave with only three little bags of whatever. I've waited at an ER for 9 hrs. only to have a doctor peek in at me for 5 minutes, then been charged $3000 for the privilege. The price of my prescriptions changes seemingly at random, and I recently dissolved in tears at CVS when the frustration was just too much and something I used to get for $40 is now for some reason $600, surrounded by lots of other "real" people, no doubt, with the same worries and stress. I get that way especially when I'm exhausted, and I haven't had less than a 12 hour work day in the last three weeks straight.
I'm also a tenured professor in the Department of _____, where I make a LOT less than you think, and tend to teach in rooms where the tables have only three good legs. I appreciate my tenure, for now, and my decent, hard-earned salary. Many of the "part-time instructors" (a misnomer) around me barely live above the poverty line. I'm not a serf, as my username suggests, but these people nearly are. It is disgraceful.
I was wondering what part of the "real world" you think we're not a part of? Do you have any idea what you are talking about? I would dismiss the comment as simply ignorant if it weren't so dangerous, and if the futures of the very "real" students I love and the colleagues I respect (who also make a lot less than you think, and work a lot harder than you suppose) were not at stake ... if the future of the entire state weren't at stake.
IIt's terribly sad that you have such misguided impressions of your city's major university and it's more than 20,000 students, and terribly sad that I don't feel safe revealing to you my identity, though some of my excellent colleagues already have. If I were more certain you were a reasonable and good neighbor, I'd happily invite you to my class. In my class, we treat each other with mutual respect and endeavor not to make gross generalizations we can't support with evidence or reasoned argument. It's all quite real, I assure you.
This is my final semester at UNLV and I can't express how happy I am to be finally "getting out" of this excuse for a college. The majority of students at UNLV are there to mess around and have no desire to excel in their respective area. All these majors that don't produce jobs are not needed. Furthermore, the waste of time General Education isn't needed as well. I eclipsed any General Education class by taking AP classes in high school. In fact, most of UNLV was a breeze given AP classes in high school.
The school does offer great opportunities if you choose the right major and get involved. The accounting program at UNLV is not nearly as intensive as other schools in the nation, but it has positioned me with a job prior to even graduating. The experience is all what you make out of it. Glad to be out before this next cut hits though, it won't be pretty.
It breaks my heart to see how little the people of Nevada care about the future of their children. The future of their community. The students of UNLV are going to have to compete with students from all over the world for available jobs-- Not just outside of Las Vegas, but within. There are so many comments on this board exclaiming that higher education is getting what's coming to it. As if, higher education has actually caused pain. As if, going to college and getting a degree has been a real destructive force in the lives of the people of Nevada. Don't you see, UNLV may not be perfect and it may not fulfill every dream of the students that go there, but that is why we need to invest more in order to make it better. Our students don't just need an adequate education...a piece of paper...They need serious help. They need teachers that can be there for them and help them learn how to read, speak english,think critically, conduct experiments, take risks, be professional, write brilliantly, and make connections with people in industry. They can't have that if all anyone is willing to pay for is an abundance of graduate assistants, part-time instructors, and a professor here or there. Other states are doing this, other states are thinking 10, 20, 30, 100 years from now. If we don't believe this place will exist in 10 years, let alone 100 we probably shouldn't invest in education, but this is how communities are built with planning, investing, and caring about things bigger than ourselves. Dreaming big for our children...and our neighbor's children.
As a former and future citizen of the great state of Nevada, I am quite proud of some of the comments here. The truth is coming out. These are the times, my friends, when we see who we are. The covers are being ripped of, the panic attacks have taken their toll, and the future lies ahead of us one step at a time.
The desire to make our lives better comes from inside of us, as Frank Lloyd put it - "The heart is the chief feature of a functioning mind." And spread out before us, we see the heart of this matter - we need to encourage growth and understanding that lead us to develop into who we might become.
Lifelong learning comes from loving parents, stimulating and gratifying Junior to feel his powers and know his strengths. It takes a village, a world today. And if we pass on this generation, we forfeit tomorrows and tomorrows.
Mr. Smatresk the $47.5 million cut represents a 7.6% reduction of the schools $625,000,000 annual budget.
I'm confident in your faculty's leadership. Economic recovery may be down the road of financial exigency.
UNLV only graduates about 40% after SIX years! For all of you agonizing abut the importance of higher education, consider that number.. you are subsidizing an institution with about a 60% failure rate to deliver educated graduates. Would you invest in an automobile company where 60% of the expected production was lost?
@sfnowina, what do you expect, when the state gets little to no support and funding compared to other states. For the record, national average graduation rate is 55%, and only 3 west coast states are above the average according to the NCES (CA, OR, WA). Let's ask this question, do you like having doctors, dentists, nurses, IT specialists, physical therapists, engineers, architects, teachers, financial advisers, accountants, etc, etc? Cause no one is going to want to head to NV because there are no jobs, no community support, no water, low wage jobs, no growth, no business, high foreclosure, terrible public transit, extreme summer heat, expensive utility usage, poor communal services.
Every great city has a great University producing graduates into the local work force. There is little incentive to keep graduates from moving.
Sofakingbored,
Sorry, but its not just UNLV. Many public universities have similar or worse 6-year graduation rates, irrespective of the availability of jobs or quality of the campus.
University of Houston - 42% - this is a city with high employment in science, technology arts etc.
Cal State Chico - 56%
Texas A&M (highly selective admission) - 80%
So either students are unprepared, unmotivated or unsuitable. Doesn't say much for K-12 preparation. But people who cant graduate in 6 years don't belong in university.
So, become much more selective in enrollment (reduce student population to those most likely to benefit), eliminate useless programs.. gender studies and the like, which prepare students for nothing useful. That would significantly reduce costs without reducing output of qualified, skilled graduates. Half the students, double the graduation rates. Same skilled output, 1/2 the cost.
Welcome to the "Great Recession" UNLV! We are happy to hear you are joining the rest of us that have been making tough decisions and major budget cuts over the past 16 months, and continue to do so.
Our community fully supports UNLV, but we expect you to show leadership. Listening to those that whine and complain falls on deaf ears. Instead of any faculty suggesting UNLV deserves to be immune from any budget cuts, let's hear you talk about how you will make the necessary sacrifices and still produce leaders that will ensure our country does not face this "mess" again.
You can also remind us of how our standard of living is still far above any other country in the world, and (more importantly) that college education is a true honor and privilege, not a right.
I love it, Maldonado says "we've built". Who's that ?You?It's the taxpayers of NV lady, not you or anyone on UNLV.Listening to the pro tax crowd on these posts and the lie that a blank check for higher education brings jobs to a state then why are all the Democrat high tax states have the highest unemployment in the US and losing businesses and population? CA, NY, MA, PA, OH losing congressional seats at DC cause of the POPULATION they lost.NV lost Chase bank when Guinn sounded like a Democrat and they went to ND.NV is a great place again, with REALISTIC property values and low taxes.In the next 10 yrs lets see where CA is v NV with the Democrats running CA, which lost lots of biz and people 2000-10.Academia is left wing, well now you get to pay for your wrong headed policies for our country's economy. How about letting us drill for our own oil? Lots of tax revenues could be generated there and would lower cost of fuel and food to consumers. How about nuclear power? How about gas? Academia can pay and like everyone else. Maybe they should all take progressive pay cuts since they are so caring and giving as they claim. You make 250K now its 150K\, you make 150K now its 100K, academia show us you care and volunteer for some pay cuts then you can save other people's jobs there and programs.If you all cut your salaries you can save jobs and programs in a city where a house in 2006 was 325K now is 115K.90K a yr goes a long way in Las Vegas.Maybe academia and the Democrat can explain why cost of education has gone up triple the inflation rate in the last 30 years while they complain about not getting enough of everyone else's money. the days that academia and the Democrats thinking challenging education costs is political suicide and can simply say " republicans hate children" are OVER.CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA!