Consequences of cuts

Friday, Feb. 18, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

UNLV President Neal Smatresk told the Faculty Senate on Tuesday to prepare for the worst. He said the budget proposal Gov. Brian Sandoval sent to the Legislature would mean severe cuts. “It’s very clear our state is approaching a state of fiscal collapse” regarding education, Smatresk said.

Budget cutters might dismiss a strong statement like that and note that university officials are trying to rally support to minimize cuts, but this isn’t simply posturing. The state’s budget crisis threatens to take a huge toll on UNLV, as well as the entire Nevada System of Higher Education.

In a letter Tuesday to campus leaders, Provost Michael Bowers said the proposed cut would mean a loss of $47.5 million to UNLV. The university has seen its state funding drop by nearly $50 million over the past three years. Bowers instructed campus administrators to prepare a list of possible cuts.

Bowers said reaching the proposed cut would be “difficult and painful,” with the bulk of the cuts coming in academic programs. Bowers said that could mean cutting or consolidating departments and schools.

As the Las Vegas Sun’s Anthony Ramirez reported, it’s expected that if there are large cuts, the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Board of Regents will declare a state of “financial exigency,” making it easier to lay off tenured professors and other employees.

Given the economic realities, the university system will have to find ways to refine what it does, but the proposed budget would have major ramifications, trimming its mission. At UNLV, Smatresk said it would lead to a “smaller, more expensive, more selective institution.”

That might sound appealing to some people who in the past have argued for tougher admission standards and higher tuition, which would reduce state funding to the university. But these cuts aren’t just limited to UNLV. They will affect the entire university system, and that’s troubling. As a result, there would be fewer opportunities for students from all walks of life, from the high school student trying to get a degree to the unemployed worker seeking new career skills.

Education plays a key role in the economy. As we have noted before, the nonpartisan Brookings Institution has linked education levels in cities in the Intermountain West to economic success. And universities can be a driver for economic diversification, which Nevada badly needs.

Undercutting education can’t be acceptable to Nevadans. Bowers, who has worked at UNLV for 27 years — half the university’s life span, summed up the situation well.

“That UNLV is shortsightedly viewed as a cost and not a benefit and to see that the state is on the cusp of abandoning its citizens’ aspirations to better themselves through higher education can bring joy to no one,” Bowers wrote.

Too often, education is seen as a line item on the state budget to be tinkered with to balance the books, but it can’t be viewed that way. The governor and lawmakers should consider the long-term effects of the proposed budget. If Nevada is to move forward and develop a new economy, it’s going to have to find ways to nurture education, not slash it deeply.