The Nevada Sagebrush

Gov. Jim Gibbons’ recent eight percent budget cut proposal to the University of Nevada, Reno’s 2010-11 budget is sending education officials scrambling for solutions after the university’s budget was cut by 15 percent last year.

The proposal could bring cuts to major services and academic programs, which the university avoided in the past, UNR Provost Marc Johnson said. If that happens, new students will have fewer majors to choose from, fewer classes to enroll in and fewer professors to learn from.

“We already pared back on everything not directly related to getting students in and out of class,” Johnson said. “We can’t do much more before we become nonfunctional.”

The repeated cuts may also arouse fear amongst faculty and students.

“It harms the morale of the faculty to be under a cloud of uncertainty,” Johnson said. “Students know they have a higher registration fee, bigger classes and less services. It affects the morale of students.”

Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Klaich said the governor’s request to cut money in the middle of a school year is almost impossible because classes are already in session and contracts bind the school to its current budget.

“We’ve got students in classes and accepted fees,” Klaich said. “We can’t stop operations in the middle of the semester.”

The Board of Regents is set to meet Feb. 2 to discuss the possibility of cuts to NSHE’s institutions, Klaich said.

Money would most likely be taken from non-academic funds set aside for things like new furniture in residence halls and improvements to parking lots if cuts occur. Because that money was collected for specific purposes it would have to be repaid and is only a short-term fix.

Kaye Hardy, an 18-year-old history major, said that a short-term fix was one of UNR’s best optionsto find extra money.

“I feel like there’s a lot of money that could be taken (from residence halls, parking and other departments),” she said. “I feel like it’s just sitting around not being used.”

If the proposed reductions are approved, students will feel the effects in 2011.

Eight percent reductions mean entire academic programs will have to be cut, an alternative to cutting equally from every department, Johnson said. Cutting from every department would be a poor choice, he said.

“That would decimate all programs and prevent us coming back after the recession. We will protect strong programs,” he said. “We will lose programs on the edge.”

When choosing which programs to cut, Johnson said university administrators must consider a list of factors including the impact departments have on students, whether or not they teach core curriculum classes, and their research production.

If majors are cut, students already enrolled will be allowed to complete their degrees but new students would be shut out, UNR President Milton Glick said.

Despite the idea of eliminating majors, Glick said he was optimistic the university could make the cuts and emerge from the recession a leaner university that preserved its strongest programs, “assuming we (make the cuts) well.”

“I believe there is a real budget problem in this state,” Glick said. “We run the danger (with cutting education) of eating our seed corn. You can’t cut your way to greatness.”

With almost a quarter of the university’s budget cut in two years, Glick said administrators’ main job would be to convince state leaders not to pass the cuts to higher education. If they fail at that job, though, Glick said the focus would move to cutting weaker programs and “preserving the impact and mission” of the university.

NSHE was supposed to have a plan to Gibbons by Jan. 5 laying out how it would cut its budget. The system failed to make that deadline because the governor’s request wasn’t made until after faculty and staff had left for winter break, Klaich said.

“We can’t come up with a plan in three weeks with closed campuses,” he said. “That’s not realistic.”

The decisions of how much to cut and where to do it now hinges on the Economic Forum’s projection of state tax revenue Friday. The Economic Forum is a state agency tasked with providing forecasts of tax revenue. Gibbons reportedly said he wants to wait for the forum’s input before requesting a special session from legislatures to confront an expected $67 million state general fund budget shortfall.

“We really don’t have an idea of what’s happening until after the Economic Forum,” Associated Students of the University of Nevada President Eli Reilly said. “That’s the big thing right now.”

Reilly said that, as with the last round of budget cuts, students can help by staying informed and expressing their opinions through letters to state leaders.

Sarah Newsham, a 20-year-old speech pathology major, said she would try to take part in letter writing and staying informed, but expressed frustration that UNR was being faced with budget problems again.

“I believe the budget cuts are going too far,” she said. “It isn’t fair … Other sources should be considered.”

Reilly said he’s heard many comments like Newsham’s.

“Students are telling me, ‘This is not good.’ Students are frustrated and tired of hearing about this stuff,” Reilly said. “Almost a year ago to the day we had the big rally at the State of the State. People got fired up and now they’re saying, ‘How is this going to happen again?’”

Despite the arguments from Glick, Johnson and other administrators that UNR’s budget is on its last leg, some in Nevada politics argue it can withstand more cuts.

“There are so many different things UNR can do,” said Patrick Gibbons, an education policy analyst for the Nevada Policy Research Institute.

Gibbons (no relation to the governor) suggested the university and other institutions in NSHE look at outsourcing expensive services such as maintenance and groundskeeping to save money.

“If the private company can do the job for less, give them the contract,” he wrote in an e-mail. “You force the government employees to compete on price with the private sector.”

The governor’s push to cut higher education’s budget comes in the midst of his proposal to cut heavily from K-12 education.

Gov. Gibbons proposed earlier this month that K-12 mandated funding be dropped for full-day kindergarten and class size reduction programs while adding a statewide voucher system to send students to private schools. The governor’s office has said some of that money would still go back to K-12, but his proposal has many saying the plans would cause more harm than good.

“The governor is dusting off policy from an old republican playbook without talking to any students,” said Mike Trask, spokesperson for Clark County City Councilman and 2010 Nevada gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid. “He’s reaching for republican votes just before the primary because his back is against the wall.”

Higher education would be adversely affected by the cuts to K-12, Klaich said.

“It’s difficult for me to see how reform proposal will lead to success,” Klaich said. “K-12 is our pipeline.”

As for higher education, Klaich said he is cautiously hopeful that future cuts won’t be too damaging.

“Clearly higher education got disproportionately cut (last year),” he said. “All we can do now is prepare and wait, and see what (the governor) does.”

Nevada Sagebrush reporter Jessica Fryman contributed reporting to this story. Emerson Marcus and Jay Balagna can be reached at news@nevadasagebrush.com.

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