Cuts loom for higher education

Nevada's higher education leaders are bracing for budget cuts that could be as high as 20 percent in the state's coming two-year budget cycle.

If cuts that large happen, there will be consequences that go beyond mere inconveniences, they say. More programs and departments will close, layoffs and pay cuts are possible, enrollment caps are likely, and students will certainly have to pay more.

Whatever the cuts end up being -- and most figures are guesses right now -- they will follow cuts already made in the last three years that have seen departments eliminated, tuition increased, and staff members laid off.

It generally is cheaper in Nevada to attend college than it is elsewhere. Tuition and fees for a Nevada resident average about $5,000 a year at the four-year institutions. That's more than double what it cost a decade ago and 75 percent higher than five years ago.

But the national average is $7,600 at public, four-year institutions, while the average in the West is about $6,200, according to data from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education .

The state's two-year colleges are slightly more expensive than the average when including California's ultra-cheap community colleges.

Average cost at Nevada's two-year colleges is about $2,200 a year. Nationwide, it is just under $2,000 with California included, $2,800 without California. The average cost in California is just $780 a year.

The higher education system, one of the most expensive parts of state government, typically gets more than two-thirds of its funding from the state. The rest comes primarily from fees charged to students, a couple hundred million total per year systemwide. That's why private universities cost so much more; they get no tax money.

The last budget cycle was different, however. About 60 percent of the $1.6 billion, two-year budget came from the state. The federal stimulus package injected nearly $200 million into Nevada's higher education system.

Cuts in the next two-year budget cycle will begin without that stimulus money, meaning the higher education system will be starting out with a 12 percent cut. Beyond that, Gov. Brian Sandoval has proposed a 5 percent pay cut for all state workers. Technically, most higher education workers, including professors, are not state workers; but Sandoval's staffers have said he will start out by proposing to reduce the higher education funding by that 5 percent to account for possible pay cuts.

Whether to implement the pay cuts is up to the Board of Regents.

Keith Lee, a lobbyist for the higher education system, said the goal going into this year's legislative session is simply to "survive" intact.

Sandoval has not been specific about his budget, beyond the pay cut and a promise not to raise taxes. He will release his proposed budget during his State of the State speech, set for Jan. 24.

Sandoval has said that he hopes to use some county property tax money to help fund community colleges, and that the higher education system's Board of Regents is free to raise tuition and fees.

Chancellor Dan Klaich and Board Chairman James Dean Leavitt met with Sandoval recently. They said the meeting was cordial and they came away unsure how much the system's budget might be cut. But Sandoval was adamant about not increasing taxes, they said.

"I just have serious reservations that that can be accomplished without doing exceptional damage to higher education," Klaich said.

He acknowledged that a 20 percent cut seemed like an educated guess. He said if you do the simple math on what state agencies spent in the last cycle versus what the revenue is expected to be in the next cycle, most state agencies should expect cuts around 20 percent.

Sandoval has pledged more "autonomy" for the system, however, meaning he backs a proposal to allow the system to keep more of the fees it collects from students. Typically, those fees go into the state's general fund, which is then used to fund the system.

An agreement worked out in the last legislative cycle allowed fee increases to stay with the institutions that charge them. Higher education leaders want that agreement to become permanent.

"If we raise fees, we want to keep those fees," Klaich said. "I think (the governor) wants to see the system have more control over its fees and tuition. That's all positive."

Klaich and Board Chairman James Dean Leavitt acknowledge tuition and fees will rise again. But, they say, a tuition increase won't cover massive cuts.

"Impossible," Klaich said.

"You can't do it all on tuition," Leavitt said.

They said if tuition were raised too much, it would drive students away. Who wants to pay private school prices to attend an average public university? And low-income students, without a massive influx of financial aid, which no one sees coming, could be locked out altogether.

But how high is too high? No one knows what the limit to an increase would be, the point at which the money raised by the increase would be offset by the loss in students.

Even if tuition and fees were doubled, and even if the system did not lose a single student because of it, the extra money raised would not be enough to cover a 20 percent cut coupled with the loss of federal stimulus money.

Leavitt said he thinks a 12 percent fee increase over each of the next two years is about as high as the system could handle without losing so many students that it ends up costing money. Such an increase would raise the cost to about the regional average, but it would not cover the cuts.

The board recently approved proposals by the two universities to dramatically increase fees for high-cost, high-demand programs such as nursing. The new fees are not yet in effect, so no one knows how they might affect enrollment.

J.T. Creedon, the student body president at the College of Southern Nevada, said some students already are leaving. CSN officials say more than 5,000 students were turned away from registering for last fall's semester because there was no more room for them.

If prices go up too much, Creedon said, low-income students would be hurt the most. He said there already is a dearth of need-based financial aid in Nevada.

"I don't see how anybody below a certain income level could continue to attend college," he said.

He worries not only about the students who won't be able to attend college, but about the college itself.

"I don't see how we can endure a 20 percent cut," he said. "I don't see how we can continue to offer the programs we do."

Klaich and Leavitt seemed to agree.

They both said another round of program eliminations seemed likely. And neither would rule out closing some institutions, consolidating institutions, or instituting layoffs.

"That's all you have left," Leavitt said.

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