Jarvis wants to correct funding disparity between UNR, UNLV

While UNR receives funding for 162 students who didn't show up for class, UNLV struggles to teach nearly 800 more students than the campus expected, according to preliminary figures from the University and Community College System of Nevada.

UNLV is posting a 6 percent gain over last spring's full-time undergraduate enrollment. During the same period, UNR's enrollment grew by 1 percent.

The contrast between the state's two public universities is greater at the graduate level, where UNLV's 5 percent enrollment increase compares with UNR's 7 percent decrease, figures show.

Based on those actual enrollment figures, UNLV should have received $5 million more in funding, and UNR would have received $1 million less.

On Monday, University system Chancellor Richard Jarvis said he is seeking authority from the 1999 Legislature to redistribute money when enrollments come in under or over a campus' projections.

"We don't have the authority to move money between any of the campuses," Jarvis said. "The need is for us to have the flexibility to match the growth funded by the state with the actual enrollments."

State legislators haven't embraced the proposal, he said.

The enrollment trends will be scrutinized April 29 and 30 by the Board of Regents when the panel meets in Reno to discuss an independent study examining whether there are historic budgetary practices that favor stable Northern Nevada universities and community colleges over their fast-growing counterparts in the south.

The state budget proposed for the next two years, Jarvis said, would send money to UNR to cover an enrollment increase of 1 percent; 2 percent at UNLV; and 3 percent at the Community College of Southern Nevada, which grew by 12 percent during the previous year. UNR, UNLV and the community college anticipate annual enrollment growth of 3 percent, 5 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

The presidents of Southern Nevada's schools have been arguing that more funding should come their way because of higher growth rates.

If such budget increases do not occur, the Board of Regents in February agreed to petition the 1999 Legislature in May to redistribute funding from northern campuses or cut programs funded by estate tax revenues to fund additional enrollment growth at UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada. Some $1 million would go to Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, which is growing at a faster rate than the other three Northern Nevada campuses.

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