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Friday, Feb. 25, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Related story
Sun archives
- UNLV president’s somber warning on budget cuts moves faculty to tears (2-16-2011)
- 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)
- School officials warn of jobs cuts, larger classes under proposed budget (1-26-2011)
- A steep climb for Nevadans (1-26-2011)
- Soft words during State of the State hide Nevada in pain (1-25-2011)
- Teachers not pleased with most of Sandoval’s speech (1-25-2011)
- In response, Democrats say taxes might be part of budget solution (1-24-2011)
The plan proposed by a UNLV professor is simple.
Still, it has vast implications for more than 114,000 students, 7,000 professors and other employees at nine colleges and universities in Nevada.
His suggestion: Close five institutions of higher education and move their students and professors to the other four, where 90 percent of students go.
It would save $50 million over two years, the professor says.
The surviving institutions presumably would be UNR and Truckee Meadows Community College in the north and UNLV and College of Southern Nevada in the south.
Driving the plan is Nevada’s perilous economy and a budget that is underfunded by about a third.
Budget cuts proposed by Gov. Brian Sandoval for higher education exceed $162 million.
Budget discussions are in the early stages, but by May — the Legislature must approve a budget by June — campus consolidation may be on the table.
The plan is the brainchild of Bryan Spangelo, a UNLV chemistry professor. A member of the Faculty Senate, he said he studied the Nevada System of Higher Education budget while serving on UNLV’s budget-cutting committee the past two years.
His plan is “a way to start the conversation, which I think has to start now,” he said.
Last week, UNLV President Neal Smatresk said higher education would have to consider declaring a form of bankruptcy known as financial exigency, a blow to the prestige of UNLV and other campuses.
“My plan doesn’t try to leverage exigency, it tries to avoid it,” Spangelo said.
The proposal has little or no support among the 13 regents, who would have to approve it.
Ten oppose or are leaning against the plan, which was circulated last week. Three say they are keeping an open mind.
Opposing regents say closing a building, let alone a campus, does not mean immediate savings and would have far-reaching consequences.
Regent Kevin Page, an investment manager in Las Vegas and vice chairman of the Audit Committee, has no position on Spangelo’s plan but shares concerns of the opposing regents.
“It’s not that simple to go from nine to four” institutions, Page said.
But if the current level of higher-education cuts proposed by Sandoval is preserved by the Legislature, regents must consider some degree of consolidation, he said.
“If, and it’s a big if, the number stays at $162 million, then we’d have to look at it,” Page said.
Regent Michael Wixom, chairman of the Investment and Facilities Committee, strongly opposes Spangelo’s plan.
“You don’t really save money with consolidation,” said Wixom, an attorney.
“Saying it’s a Rubik’s Cube doesn’t even begin to describe how complex it is,” he said.
Objections include the plan’s sketchiness, the radical nature of the cuts and the cost of maintaining closed buildings. Regents say that keeping four institutions seems arbitrary, and since more of the closed institutions would be in the north, northern regents and legislators are sure to fight mergers.
And, practically speaking, where would more than 11,000 students go, they ask. Would they be herded into already crowded classrooms? Would low-income and minority students be denied access to education?
Further, detractors point out, a mothballed building requires maintenance and security.
“You can’t just turn the building off,” Wixom said. “It’s expensive to turn it off and you need money to turn it off.”
Regent Mark Alden goes further. “It’s all about Bryan,” Alden said. “It’s ludicrous. It’s all about saving his job.” Spangelo says Alden’s comment is “an unfortunate, personal, ad hominem attack” that doesn’t address the merits of his plan.
Spangelo suggested the plan at a UNLV Faculty Senate meeting last week where Smatresk said UNLV would have to draft a budget assuming the regents would declare financial exigency.
Spangelo acknowledges that consolidating would be difficult. “No one wants to talk about reorganizing a system that took many, many years to build.”
And he acknowledges that Northern Nevada would bear the brunt of his reorganization.
Western Nevada Community College, Great Basin College and the northern campus of the Desert Research Institute would be closed and merged.
Nevada State College and the southern campus of Desert Research Institute would also close under Spangelo’s plan.
Ron Knecht, the only regent to vote last year for deep cuts in the higher education budget, said he’s against both Sandoval’s budget and Spangelo’s plan as too radical.
“But this is very early in the game,” Knecht said.
The Governor has a plan and the Chemistry Professor has a plan. Isn't odd that the Chancellor, Board of Regents and the rest of the administrators, whose job is to have a budget, do not have a budget?
Of course there was the proposed budget that the Regents passed last year proposing increases in the budget, but I am not sure that qualifies as a plan. More like delusion.
The system of higher education better wake up and show some leadership for a change. The students and the state need a system that is in touch with the realities of the state. The current leadership is not.
I would be happy to donate a broom to see that this mess is swept up and tossed (no recycling for this toxic mess).
Let's hear about what can be done and what is possible within the constraints before us instead of the whining.
Here's a plan - recall the Governor and install Rory.
The Chancellor and Regents have had the Governor's proposals for a month now. Why haven't they drafted a budget yet to implement this proposal? They make various assertions, but they have not shown the public the impacts of the proposal.
Sound familiar? Sure it is the same strategy they are using for the UNLV stadium plan--42,000 seats, 600,000 square feet of retail space, 3,000 units of housing and no price tag.
I think the Sun should do some investigative reports, using Freedom of Information Act to gain access to the all of the relevant documents related to budgets. Why isnt there more detail assessing the impacts and options for everyone to see? We need to go into this with eyes wide open instead of the empty assertions.
They need to learn to live within the constraints of a budget that is compatible with the monies now available to them.
Declare a financial exigency. Put the whole mess in receivership and appoint a trustee to sort it out.
The taxpayers and students deserve better than this. Remember these were the clown that submitted a budget last fall calling for increases in their budget from the previous biennium. What planet do the Chancellor and administrators live? It sure isn't Planet Nevada 2011.
close the school of journalism-how can one named after a failing newspaper enterprise teach success?
revtomperl - after the recent actions of Reid the elder, I would never vote for his son again. Heck, I only voted for Reid to keep crazy Sharon Angle out of office.
The public does not yet comprehend the consequences of Gov. Sandoval's cuts to education: less than half of UNLV and UNR will remain if he gets his way; and the Community College system is already turning away at least 10,000 potential students due to the last round of cuts...
And K-12? Right now, a parent has a better chance of a good education for his/her kids in Puerto Rico and Guam than in Nevada, and further cuts will almost surely lead to lawsuits that force the state to add more support down the road.
No matter how you cut it, what took a generation to build will be destroyed. Education is not like a business -- what's destroyed cannot be re-built overnight, and Nevada may never even approach even a satisfactory education system for the next 20 years, or longer...
Think hard: long, and hard, about decimating public education. The consequences may be but one more step toward our society wasting away back into the desert sands.
hey bryan spangelo...
here's a plan skippy...
you take a 10% pay cut...
raise taxes on mining...
everyone keeps their jobs...
and the kids are protected...
what do you say skippy???
hmmm???
slick greasy brian sandoval...
a phony smiling big toothed huckster...
who favors mining over innocent children...
mining companies that destroy the land and ship profits out of state and out of country...
over the innocent children of the state he serves...
what a frickin fraud...
slick greasy brian sandoval...
suupports prostitution...
but wants to harm children...
slick greasy brian sandoval is a FRAUD!!!
Mr. Unger - I totally agree with you but I think it's time to let it go. These people simply don't care. Most of them have been used and abused by the casino industry and the thought of someone - even their kids - having a better life infuriates them. Misery loves company.
They're totally OK with the casinos raping the workers and the mining industery raping the land. There is no room for educated people in their Nevada - it's the new Dark Ages and civilized society is finished here.
Let them have it, I say. Let the casino owners keep treating them like something they scrape off their shoe. It's only going to get worse as education becomes less and less valued.
Let their children beg for change outside the airport and along the strip. These people don't need an education or health care - they don't deserve it. Nevada is going to be a Third World country and they seem OK with that. All they need are the scraps left over from casino owners and gamblers.
You reap what you sow.
The majority of Nevadans elected a talking head for Governor who preaches and practices "voodoo economics."
He pledges no new taxes, but doesn't mind raising "fees" and "tuition" for students, and shoving state responsibilities to local governments, who will have to raise taxes or face drastic cuts in police, fire protection, etc.
Democracy is doomed if folks keep voting for morons.
Here's a better plan ...
Why not privatize UNLV (and maybe Reno also) and let it operate as a scaled down university with a focus on research, scholarship and graduate education focused on keeping the best Nevada students in Nevada.
The public funds saved by scaling UNLV down to a small private school could be used for two purposes: reducing state funding to higher education to meet the governor's goals, and transitioning the Community College of Southern Nevada into a public college/university with a focus on educating undergraduates and granting 4 year degrees.
CSN and UNLV are basically serving the same functions right now, educating undergraduates.
All this does is duplicate costs and effort.
So get the kids who are not going on to graduate school (but still want a 4 year degree with some prestige) out of UNLV.
Shrink UNLV. Expand CSN. Let CSN focus on educating undergrads. Let UNLV focus on educating the best of the best undergrads, and master's and doctoral students.
I'm not familiar with Northern Nevada, but would assume the same approach would probably work in the north.
"The public does not yet comprehend the consequences of Gov. Sandoval's cuts to education: less than half of UNLV and UNR will remain if he gets his way"
Hopefully, it is the half that graduates within six years.
Let's take Spanglos plan even further and go down to UNLV as the only university in the state and then give him and the rest of the faculty a 40% raise! What a self-serving and sinister proposal. I can't believe people took it seriously.
It shows NO understanding or consideration for the rest of the state or community colleges. Guess what - there are a lot fewer people that want a PhD in Chemistry in Nevada than people that want a basic college education that will improve their lives and fill needs in our state.
Brian's Little Axe
Within an hour of fully reviewing Governor Sandoval's budget plan, steps should have been taken immediately to remove him from office.
I will present something that you are not accustomed to"an intelligent assessment.
I am hired for the job of brain surgeon.
It is discovered before my first surgery that my certifications and college degrees were fraudulent.
Do just smile and watch me walk into the surgery room for my first slice and dice?
Governor Sandoval very cleverly did not reveal his budget plan. Rather, he watched the other fool talk himself into a political grave.
The plan, when presented was not a budget plan, but a slice & dice.
Any mother's moron son can take out an axe and start chopping down the house.
A budget plan that consists of not much more, than chopping down houses, is not a plan.
This brian-surgeon was elected under the fraudulent condition that he would not raise taxes and had a viable plan that would be revealed, if elected.
Governor Sandoval should be impeached and removed from office for fraud.
If his budget operations are allowed to continue, I predict losing more than a few patients.
We need brilliant ideas, not axes.
For anyone, who disagrees"I am running a 50% discount on brain surgeries"this week only.
(75% for Republicans, George.)
KISS...Keep it simple, stupid.
If the ball-bearing factory is turning out little metal things that are square and triangular, you shut it down.
Little square and triangular things don't roll.
If the universities keep turning out Goodman, Sandoval and Krolichi ball-bearings...
The products that the universities are pushing off their higher education, assembly lines...aren't rolling.
Shut all of the universities down and retool for better educational, people products.
Let's do a Rhode Island--fire them all. We can then hire ENTRY LEVEL teachers/college lecturers at ENTRY LEVEL SALARIES. We'd leave UNLV and UNR closed and open the Community Colleges for nursing, welding, home health care associates.
Republicans have solutions: kill education, gut all government-operated agencies, let weak citizens actually die on their own, and promote rich corporations into monopoly through campaign deals.
Republicans are dissolving the middle class by making the poor poorer and the rich richer, and somehow everything is good about that.
Republicans are fans of Sara Palin, love treasonous entertainers on Fox network, and think about paying doctors with chickens. They would rather see a country crash into rubble, and thereby defend their own with guns and ammo, than innovate meaningful ways to keep infrastructural systems running properly.
So, let's cut out Nevada's Higher Education and finish what we began last year. With this type of action the opportunity to acquire a future in Nevada is drastically smaller...the economy can really dive now.
I graduated from UNLV 5 years ago...BEFORE it all went down in flames. If it were up to me, I'd say put your investment into educating people.
Amazing the Governor runs on a platform of no tax increases. He wins by a lot. He goes ahead and submits a budget that has no new taxes and the public wants to impeach him or recall him. Be serious. He is doing exactly what he said he was going to do and a majority of votes elected him on November 2. I don't see what the problem is.
It's amazing that the Regents and the Chancellor can only critize. Spangelo's an easy target because he dared to come up with a plan that he admits is just an idea that can be improved upon. Our supposed leaders have done nothing constructive in regard to all of this. To vilify a respected professor is not being constructive. It's petty, snide rhetoric from people who are devoid of ideas of their own. I've always thought that having the public vote for Regents was a bad idea. Now I'm convinced of it.
It is NOT a plan to say that we should shut down the universities that I am not working at. Okay, you want a plan ... Let's get rid of every administrator at UNLV to save the money. That's a plan. Or, let's get rid of all of the students, that's a plan! Get real.
It's interesting that Smatresk isn't speaking up on this. Is he the puppet master or what is the silence about?
Docrebel has the mentality of a classroom theory. he can't accept reality without having studied it in a class. Yes Docrebel(he is probably not a real doctor just plays one on Sun's post) every Republican watch's Fox and likes Palin, ya right he must have learned that also in a classroom. Some people don't want to attend college and get a degree or take some classes to improve there job skills or actually get on the job training. But since it's your anti Republican stance I can see you learned that from Liberal teachers in a classroom right?
Strictly speaking, that was a circumstantial ad hominem, not a personal attack ad hominem. Let's get our name calling straight.
No, Turri...his foundation for being elected was an outright fraud.
There was a very logical assumption (and don't give me that impertinent ass-ume adage sound-byte) that he was a man with a plan.
A lie of omission of this magnitude is criminal level deceit. He is receiving money for "fraudulent intent."
The damage that will be done, if Sandoval is not removed will be immeasurable from my preliminary estimates.
You cannot commit a "lie of omission" and still wear the superhero's Cloak of Honesty.
And as far as "no new taxes," this guy is taxing everyone's patience and level of tolerance.
Bruce:
Care to share your preliminary estimates of immeasurable damage?
It's becoming quite clear why Nevada is ranked low in education .... those in charge have no plan and when somebody does have an idea... it's automatically ridiculed with sob stories.
Consolidate... up online classes, get rid of the crap antiquated majors that won't land the students a job to pay off all of the debt for their "investment" in studying ancient cultures of Gooloowala... or Pakistani Poetry..
If people want to learn about Art -- they can get online or check out a book and learn what they need to in a day or two..
We have enough flippin attorneys, don't need even more Political Science Majors and if you want to study History.. probably better off at an East Coast College anyways.
Afro-American Studies? Go to Howard College or a number of better schools..
Art History? Try a school in New York or Chicago.
Classical Studies? Really?
Cultural Studies? Sure thing... Visit the strip.
Film? -- Go to USC, UCLA or the multiple film study schools in LA.
Ethnic Studies? What's the point?
French, Italian, Japanese ? Save your money and buy Rosetta Stone..
Philosophy? Go to Berkley..
Romance Languages? Give me a break..
Senior Adult Theatre? You've got to be kidding me..
Sociology? Whatever..
Women's Studies? Whatever..
That's just from scanning some of the worthless majors at UNLV where graduates will be able to get a job and become contributors to the Nevada economy in????
There are NUMEROUS programs that could be cut where only a handful of people are going to cry about it and move on to some other worthless liberal arts school.
Be EXTREMELY Good at something instead of trying to be everything.
Get to work in finding a solution and stop the crying...
Engineering, Finance, Accounting, Chemistry, Medical Fields, Technology... that's where the jobs are and having GREAT departments / Research here will attract businesses that contribute to Nevada's economy. Not the ones listed above...
Nevada State College was a mistake to open up in 2002 in the first place.
It's a glorified Community College with many majors that can be found at CCSN and UNLV...
Not good enough to get into UNLV at first?? Start off at CCSN and after two years if you do well enough... get into UNLV.
One building at Nevada State College is owned.. one is leased from the city of Henderson for $1 a year, the other two are leased at a cost of over $1,300,000 a year. Sell the owned building off to a technology based company and give them some major incentives to move their corporate headquarters there. It's in a nice location...
508 Acres of owned Land is part of this campus and could be sold... worth a nice chunk of change that could be used in enhancing UNLV to become a real player in the collegiate world.
OR... turned into a corporate center campus with benefits to attract corporations looking to bail out of one of the states going BK and raising everybody's taxes.
Good jobs and income to the state instead of being a drain on the state and bringing down the educational standards due to being stretched too thin.
The Regents are just a bunch of whiners with no real solutions just looking out to save their buddies cush teaching jobs.
There are NUMEROUS solutions to reaching the $160 Million budget shortfall... a budget shortfall created because of a decade of excess building everything that bloated the budget...
Wake up... in this day and age of technology and global competition... the competition is not in liberal arts studies... all of which can be taught online. Does somebody really need to sit in a class to learn about ancient Japanese poetry?
Get out of the old, traditional educational theories and step up to the new educational theories.
Until then.... just more whining and crying about departments that ... in the big picture.... Really Don't Matter.
Get rid of the leaches in control of a budget that have no real world business experience and let's move on with people that will have a plan in moving forward...
...stop living in the past where everybody was rolling in the dough of borrowed money.
And Stop blaming a Governor that has to deal with budgets that were bloated up during the period of excess. The past 10 years of MISMANAGEMENT and MAL-INVESTMENT are the problem...
Time to deal with reality and start a sustainable plan that will have a future... and actually contribute to Nevada's economy instead of being a drain on it.
@ Turrialba...Since there isn't even a proposal pending for a new stadium, I don't see what strategy you think "they" are using. Currently the regents and the developer are discussing the idea in order to come up with the information you seek. If a proposal is put forth for approval that doesn't provide any details, I doubt it will get passed.
@Bruce...Your guy lost. Get over it. Turri...is right. Sandoval pledged no new taxes and he is following through. I don't think anyone was naive enough to believe that would involve tough choices. And as far as your assertion that "There was a very logical assumption that he was a man with a plan." I direct you to the following press release from candidate Rory Reid (http://goo.gl/hU02H) where is was clearly (and accurately stated) "Brian Sandoval still has no plan to balance the state budget. He still has no ideas to create jobs for the 15 percent of Nevadans looking for work. He has no plan to make Nevada energy independent"
How short our memories have become. Sandoval ran proudly on fact he offered no plan. As with Obama, Sen. Reid and Ensign, and all the rest, we get exactly what we paid for.
"We get the government we deserve." - Alexis de Tocqueville on democracy.
@bghs1986--
I think you will get your stadium in the end (I think some influential people want to see this happen).
The strategy: generalizations to form a constituency. Very short on specifics for everything.
@Turrialba....It's not my stadium, and like you I only want it to proceed if it makes good fiscal sense for both UNLV and Las Vegas. The T&M currently fulfills that wish, but it is under the University's complete control. While I do feel something will need to be done to accommodate the ever expanding NFR audience, attract more tourist oriented events and an campus football stadium is vital to a successful program, I, like you, am hesitant to voice complete support for this project until we know more.