CSN president spells out how state budget cuts would affect his college

Glum faculty and staff listened Friday to College of Southern Nevada President Michael Richards predict that layoffs at the school were inevitable if Gov. Jim Gibbons' preliminary request for a 14 percent cut in the 2009-11 budget became reality.

At one point during the hour-long meeting, one professor said CSN employees perhaps should text message the governor with their concerns.

That interjection, apparently spawned by Gibbons' recent claim that he often text messaged a female friend about state business late at night, provoked a rare respite of laughter in the face of Richards' assessment that the possible budget cuts "would devastate CSN."

After the standing-room- only meeting in an auditorium designed for 200, Richards spelled out what his analysis of the cuts, projected to start in the fall of 2009, revealed in numbers: The school, which had an unprecedented 40,000 students last fall, would have to cut back by about 8,000 students.

Also, more than 200 members of the part-time faculty known as adjunct professors would have to be let go. That's 25 percent of that teaching pool.

Fewer teachers means fewer options for students to attend needed classes. So the number of class sections would be reduced by about 1,400, he said.

"We're all about access and this would hurt us dramatically," Richards said.

The meeting at the campus on West Charleston Boulevard was designed to keep the CSN community up to date on the state's budget crisis. At the meeting, faculty senate chairwoman Sondra Cosgrove said she has been inundated with e-mails from colleagues about possible layoffs.

She said some faculty members have said they would be willing to postpone their 4 percent cost-of-living increases if that would prevent layoffs. She said that could pose a real hardship because teachers have already agreed to defer the 2.5 percent merit pay increase they received until January as part of previous budget cuts made by the governor.

"This situation is so fluid it's difficult to tell what's really going on," she said.

CSN relies heavily on adjunct professors, often professionals working full time in the fields they teach. Of the nearly 1,400 faculty, more than 850 teach at CSN part time. Normally, they are paid slightly more than $2,000 a course.

At this point, Richards said, he does not think any full-time instructors would be cut.

"We've only got a bit more than 500 as it is for 40,000 students," he said.

David Waterhouse, the CSN student body president, said he and other students are worried that the cutbacks in teachers will make it difficult, if not impossible, for students to get the classes they need to either finish programs or transfer to senior college to finish bachelor degrees.

"If the classes aren't offered when students need them, there will be big problems," Waterhouse said. "Without the classes you can't go forward."

Waterhouse said he and "a good number" of other college and university students from throughout the state plan on demonstrating in Carson City next week when legislators will meet during a special session on the budget.

Kevin Boyle, an adjunct professor of English composition, said the vast majority of CSN students work full time so it is critical the school continue to deliver course offerings throughout the day and late into the evening.

"I have been impressed with how many of my 8 a.m. students are coming to school after working all night in the casinos," he said. "This is a student body that really is trying to improve themselves."

Boyle, a former attorney in Connecticut who taught six courses last semester, said he had hoped to become a full-time faculty member at CSN.

However, the college has frozen vacancies.

"I just love working with students," said Boyle, whose wife teaches first grade in the Clark County School District. "I think it's so important. We moved out here because we love Las Vegas. I wanted to do what I really loved. I still hope I get the chance."

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.