North-south funding feud heads for showdown

The president of the University of Nevada, Reno, is scheduled to meet with Regent Steve Sisolack in Las Vegas Tuesday to discuss the huge funding gap between northern and southern colleges.

The controversial issue, which has been around for more than a decade, surfaced last week as a hot political issue.

Based upon numbers supplied by UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada, the south may be getting shortchanged by more than $50 million annually.

Sisolack said Joe Crowley will be in Las Vegas Monday through Wednesday to have one-on-one discussions with the southern regents to discuss the issue of the amount of money spent for each full-time equivalent student.

Crowley could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

According to Sisolack the difference in funding amounts to $2,228 per full-time equivalent student, with the University of Nevada, Reno, receiving $10,378 compared to UNLV's $7,310 and CCSN's $3,964.

Sisolack says when the regents meet in Las Vegas Feb. 25-26, one of the main items on the agenda will be to try to re-do the university and college system's budget to get more money from the Legislature to make up for the disparity.

"We're not looking to take anything away from UNR," Sisolack said, "but if we're going to be bleeding in higher education, everybody has to suffer equally. We can't have UNLV hemorrhaging."

Sisolack wants money in the next budget to address growth issues.

UNLV President Carol Harter said the difference in funding has been considered a problem for many years, but it didn't come to the forefront until the last regents' election.

"I'm not quite sure if the regents have come to a conclusion of how to fix it," Harter said, noting an irony in the fact that at a time when the university and college system is trying to bring more students into the classroom, there may no be enough space or teachers available because of the money issue.

Harter called for an independent study to determine what the "real numbers" are when funding the universities.

She said it is important to know how much of the disparity is based upon genuine need, such as the University of Nevada, Reno, having older buildings that cost more to maintain, and how much is related to history and politics.

CCSN President Richard Moore says he has 1,000 more students than he was funded for, which is about how much of his growth has come from an increase in the number of high school students entering his college.

"It was a conscious act that this college took to recruit more students directly out of high school," Moore said, adding that the recruitment was at the direction of the regents, chancellor and governor.

With only 38 percent of its high school students going on to college, Nevada has one of the worse records in the country.

When Chancellor Richard Jarvis was hired four years ago only about 32 percent of those who graduated from high school went on to college.

Moore said of the 7,500 students graduating annual from local high schools, about 1,200 enrolled at the community college when the recruitment program began two years ago.

After a rigorous campaign, which included recruiting at every high school in the valley and offering students one free hour of credit, the number of doubled to 2,400.

Without funding relief, Moore says, there may not be enough space, teachers and support personnel such as counselors and librarians to accommodate those students.

Moore said he needs more money to take care of the students now on campus. The three community colleges in the north, he said, have been funded based on projected growth.

"My board says money needs to flow south," Moore said.

He said he has stayed out of north-south arguments and doesn't want to begin pointing fingers, but he wants to make sure CCSN has enough space, teachers and support people.

Chancellor Jarvis said the issue is not a simple matter of per-student funding.

"We have many needs that need to be covered," he said.

He said his and the regents' goal is to look at the budget the governor now has and to see "how do we grow it."

It's far to early to tell what, if any, budget requests will be met by the Legislature, he said.

"Our No. 1 priority is to restore the base budgets," Jarvis said.

That and to get cost of living raises for employees, if money is available.

Jarvis said CCSN is over-enrolled, but the question is how much over-enrolled are they?

"We can't just say no restraints, enroll everyone," Jarvis said.

Jarvis said given the amount of money available, the present budget is fair.

But, he said he supports the regent's budget request and is trying get as much of it restored to the governor's budget as possible.

He said the original budget submitted by the regents departed from the standard formula and addressed the issue of funding growth at UNLV, CCSN and Truckee Meadow Community College.

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