Regents take school closures off the table

CARSON CITY -- The state's colleges and universities will eliminate programs, lay off hundreds of employees and leave thousands of students with nowhere else to go if the governor's budget goes through, the institutions' presidents said Friday.

But none of the colleges will be shut down or merged into other institutions, the state higher education system's governing Board of Regents decided Friday .

Regents debated a proposal that would merge Nevada State College into the College of Southern Nevada, Desert Research Institute into the Universities of Nevada, Las Vegas and Reno, and the three northern community colleges into one entity. The proposal came after regents last month asked the chancellor's office to analyze how much money could by saved by mergers. The total savings was estimated at
$15 million per year.

"I don't know why we're reversing course today when the budget numbers haven't changed," an obviously frustrated board Chairman James Dean Leavitt said.

He said he was not in favor of closing anything, but he did not want to remove any options from the table when the size of the cut is still unknown.

Gov. Brian Sandoval has proposed cutting state support to higher education by 16 percent next year compared with this year, and by 29 percent in 2013 compared with this year. State support would go from $558 million this year to $466 million next year to $395 million the year after that. Sandoval has proposed salary cuts and tuition and fee increases as ways to make up the losses.

Outlining budget cutting plans to the board, the presidents of the two universities, four community colleges, the state college and the research institute said the cuts would be devastating. Regents will not take action on any of the proposed cuts until a state budget is finalized, probably in June.

"These aren't frills," UNLV President Neal Smatresk said of the list of programs he might have to eliminate. "There are no bells or whistles on that list."

Higher education leaders say fee increases and pay cuts would fall far short of making up the budget hole. More drastic measures would need to be taken to make up that kind of money, they say.

"This is an enormously, enormously troubling and difficult task," Regent Michael Wixom said.

Most of the presidents called for student tuition and fee increases. Several regents have publicly expressed support for increases. Fees in Nevada are typically lower than the regional average despite increasing by 50 percent in the past several years. Students generally have supported those increases recently but changed course on Friday.

"We say, 'No more,' " said Kyle George, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Association at UNLV and chairman of the Nevada Student Alliance.

He called student fee increases tax increases and said students no longer will quietly pay more money for fewer services.

No one spoke in favor the merger proposal. Speakers from institution presidents to students to business leaders said mergers were a bad idea.

"We don't need to be talking about any of those things," said Regent Ron Knecht, who proposed the motion to take the idea off the table. Others, however, said they did not want to remove any ideas from consideration, no matter how upsetting. Knecht prevailed on an 8-5 vote.

Desert Research Institute President Stephen Wells said the state could lose money if it merged DRI with the two universities, as has been proposed. He said DRI's faculty members bring in millions of dollars in outside research money. Some of those faculty members would leave if DRI ceased to exist as an independent entity, he said, and they would take their research money with them.

"That's the consequence … if you do this," he said.

Chancellor Dan Klaich said he did not think most Nevadans understood how serious the cuts could be.

"Nevadans think everything is OK," Klaich said at the outset of an hours-long hearing. "Everything is not OK. The state of Nevada is not OK. Our future is virtually at risk."

Smatresk said the university is proposing eliminating 33 degree programs, 315 jobs -- most of them filled -- and several departments. Under his plan, which he presented to the board on Friday, the philosophy, women's studies and social work departments would all be gone.

The university is considering curtailing campus mail service, shutting down buildings and eliminating hundreds more class sections.

"This is not how a normal organization or a research university typically operates," he said.

The plans he outlined include tuition and fee increases and a 5 percent salary cut but still only make up $32 million of a $47 million overall cut at the university.

University of Nevada, Reno, President Milton Glick outlined similar plans, including eliminating departments and 215 jobs.

College of Southern Nevada President Michael Richards said he suspected his cutting plans would turn away an addition 3,800 students from the community college, in addition to the 5,300 it turned away last fall because there were no more classes available.

More classes would be eliminated under the new cuts.

He said the college is considering closing all of its satellite centers and maybe its campus in Henderson, the smallest of the three metropolitan Las Vegas campuses.

CSN has about 44,000 students, with about 6,000 at Henderson. He said there has been much opposition to closing the Henderson campus, in particular.

"We don't want to close this campus," he said.

He recommended a student fee increase of 13 percent next year and another 13 percent the year after that as a way to mitigate some of the cuts.

He said a program review is under way as well because the cuts he outlined would still leave another $8 million to make up. Overall, the cuts to CSN would be $12 million next year and $25 million the year after.

Presidents of other community colleges across the state outlined similar plans.

Nevada State College President Lesley Di Mare said the college already had cut nine programs and 37 jobs. Under the new cuts -- $3.1 million next year and $4.5 million the year after -- another 32 positions would be eliminated.

She said enrollment at the college had grown 40 percent in two years while its staff, if the new cuts go through, will have shrunk 40 percent.

She recommended a student fee increase and pay cuts but said more needed to be done. She said about 130 class sections would be cut, the college probably would lose students, and class sizes would increase.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.