UNLV professor/Faculty Senate member: Get rid of five higher ed institutions rather than cutting all nine

Monday, Feb. 21, 2011 | 3:32 p.m.

Get rid of five institutions, make horizontal cuts, not vertical cuts, go for quality over sustained mediocrity.

It's making the rounds on campus, and Chancellor Dan Klaich has shared it with the regents. I have posted it at right and the accompanying email to the Faculty Senate is below:

Dear Senators:

As a point of information, attached is the first page of the plan I referred to at our last Senate meeting on Tuesday. In the face of a $163 million budget cut to higher education, we need to ask why a fundamental re-structuring of NSHE is not on the table. The four largest institutions have 90% of the total NSHE student population. The preservation those four largest institutions is paramount to the integrity of higher education in the state of Nevada. Current horizontal budget cuts to the nine campuses only serve to promote system mediocrity.

I ask that as campus leaders you distribute this plan to faculty, legislators, regents, and community leaders.

Thanks.

Bryan L. Spangelo, Ph.D.

Professor of Biochemistry

Faculty Senator At-Large

Department of Chemistry