Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

UNLV fees, law school on regents’ agenda

CARSON CITY -- Student fees for housing, food and health insurance may be going up at UNLV.

So might a law school and a new library.

University regents meet Thursday and Friday in Reno to take a look at their budget priorities for 1997-98.

UNLV President Carol Harter said a law school could be up and running by 1999 if she gets some help from the Legislature. Much of the start-up costs, she said, can be funded through private donations.

On the topic of fees, UNLV is proposing a 3.7 percent increase for student housing. Returning students this fall would pay $1,685 per semester and new students would be assessed $1,735. The extra revenue is to cover an expected increase in utilities and salaries for those who run the housing program.

Food charges would go up 1.4 percent to 2 percent depending on what type of a meal plan the student chooses. Under the proposed new fee, a student who eats five meals a week on campus would pay $773 for a semester and an individual who had a 19-meal weekly ticket would pay $1,086.

Health and accident insurance premiums are also rising, from $580 to $638 a year. For a student who covers a spouse, the rate jumps from $2,844 to $3,128.

Coverage is optional except for international students. The increase could vary depending on what type of bid the school receives.

A new $8-per-semester charge has been proposed for the 4,100 graduate students. The Graduate Student Association recommended the fee to provide additional research grants, help graduate students attend conferences to present papers and start a new electronic student journal for publishing graduate papers.

At the College of Education, UNLV is planning to phase in over three years a $250 fee to cover the cost of student teaching.

A two-day orientation session for new students would cost $60 instead of $50 under the proposal and fees for private instruction in music are suggested to go to $300 per semester for hour lessons or $150 for half-hour sessions.

The regents also will be presented with a list of proposed building projects to be funded by the 1997 Legislature. High on the agenda will be a replacement for the UNLV library. Estimated cost: $45 million.

A spokesman for the state Public Works Board said preliminary plans call for $30 million to come from the state and $15 million from donations.

Harter said the existing James R. Dickinson Library could then be renovated to house the law school.

The regents will also set their priorities for operational funding for the 1997 Legislature. The formal biennial budget, however, won't be adopted until sometime in late summer.

Besides the law school, the regents will be talking about pay raises, keeping up with student growth, providing more financial aid to students and raising the part-time faculty salaries for the community college system. They will discuss boosting campus safety programs, improving access for the disabled on the campuses and raising research and economic development efforts.

Norval Pohl, vice president for finance and administration at UNLV, said many of the student-fee issues were considered by the regents at their last meeting but they ran out of time to take action.

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