UNLV president says axing degree programs saves little

Smatresk was in for a Review-Journal editorial board Wednesday, the first time I’d met him. He seems to be a man who enjoys talking. For 90 minutes nonstop, he threw out mind-numbing numbers. Numbers are what it’s all about right now, with the special session of the Legislature starting Tuesday.

Gov. Jim Gibbons is asking for 10 percent cuts in the university and community college system. For the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 10 percent means $13 million. That’s on top of previous cuts from the base budget.

"One-third of our general fund budget will be gone since 2007, at a time when enrollment is increasing," said Smatresk, who replaced the taciturn David Ashley in 2009, making those two the yin and yang of UNLV presidents.

Smatresk told of cutting eight degree programs, ones with just a handful of students. "It didn’t save a lot of money," he said. (Actually, the number was six, according to the list provided later.)

The degree programs axed:

■ Bachelor of University Studies

■ Master of Science in Physical Therapy

■ Graduate Certificate in Food & Beverage Management Education

■ Master of Arts in French

■ Bachelor of Science in Fitness Management

■ Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences

When I asked how much was saved, the answer was "little."

Is "little" in his world less than $1 million, I asked.

No answer was forthcoming. Just "little."

By chance, I learned all the universities and community colleges have been asked to provide the savings from programs eliminated to the Board of Regents at the March meeting, so obviously somewhere at UNLV, someone knows how much was saved by eliminating six programs.

Guess I’ll have to wait until then to get an answer.

But he did answer a question I am asked a lot: Why aren’t there classes on Friday?

Students turn to labs on Fridays, researchers use the day to work, it’s a day people are free so they can attend meetings, he said. While the classrooms are standing vacant, he assured me the campus was still busy.

Sure. If he says so.

ABOUT-FACE

The media-driven public outcry over Gov. Jim Gibbons cutting diapers and dentures worked. Late Friday afternoon, the governor did an about-face saying he will reinstate adult day health care coverage.

Seems he found a $16 million savings in the amount the state has to pay the federal government for prescription drugs. So the $2.1 million to keep seven adult day care centers operating is covered.

During Thursday’s Interim Finance Committee meeting, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said more than once legislators weren’t about to let those cuts in Health and Human Services go through and wouldn’t balance this budget on the backs of the poor.

The committee got a taste of the real life impact on Thursday when a woman with a mentally disabled brother told how she put him in adult day care because otherwise he wandered while she worked. She said he wandered off once and was molested and came home without any clothes.

I doubt if Gibbons heard that story, but he’s heard enough to revise his budget balancing plan in order to protect medically fragile Nevadans, the mentally ill and developmentally disabled.

Spending $54 a day for adult day care programs doesn’t even come close to the cost of nursing homes.

Gibbons has done the right thing for 388 families across Nevada, even if he was embarrassed into doing it with the hard-to-forget images of seniors sitting in poop and pee, unable to eat solid food.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 702- 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.