Henderson representative pushes for state college

CARSON CITY - Nevada needs a four-year state college in Henderson to supplement its overcrowded university and community college systems, Assemblyman Richard Perkins has told lawmakers.

Perkins, D-Henderson, is the author of a bill giving university regents $1 million to study whether Nevada needs to include state colleges in its higher education plan - and whether Henderson is the right city to build the first campus.

He suggested, however, that the study could be completed for $500,000 and the bill should be amended to reduce its fiscal impact.

Perkins told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee on Monday that the Community College of Southern Nevada and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, are "underfunded and can't meet the needs they have now."

"A new college will take some of the load off CCSN and UNLV," Perkins added.

Supporters say they are confident the study will prove that adding a state college to the system will help Nevada cope with its growing population. And state college baccalaureate students can be educated at about half the cost per-pupil than their counterparts in the university system.

A state college wouldn't have to build or maintain high-cost science or engineering research facilities and the instructors at state colleges usually teach about twice as many classes and are generally paid less than their university counterparts, said Richard Jarvis, chancellor of the University and Community College System of Nevada.

"So we get a greater amount of instruction for our money," Jarvis said.

Also, Perkins and Jarvis say that attracting students away from the universities to a state college will allow the University of Nevada, Reno and UNLV to dedicate more resources to their most important functions: advanced degree programs and research.

If UNLV continues to enroll students at its current rate, the school's population will grow to 40,000 within the next five years, Perkins said.

But the 21,000-student campus is only projected to grow to a bit over 26,000 in that period - or about 5 percent a year, according to Robert Ackerman, vice president of student services at UNLV.

And the university will be able to accommodate those new students both on the main UNLV campus and at satellite campuses around the Las Vegas Valley, Ackerman said. He added that creating a state college system in Nevada is not a bad idea, but he's afraid UNLV would lose scarce state funding to the new system.

The bill's supporters, however, think funneling undergraduate students into a state college will help alleviate some of the pressures on the university system and won't cost the state anymore than it would to keep those students at UNLV.

"It will allow UNLV to focus on graduate programs," Perkins said, adding university officials would also be free to go after federal grant money for research projects.

"We could fill a state college with 14,000 students today - not five years from now, but today," Perkins said.

Also, the college should be built in Henderson because that city is accessible by car or bus from all areas around Las Vegas and it's safer than the neighborhoods surrounding UNLV, Perkins said.

"I'd be hard-pressed to send my son or daughter to a dorm on that campus," Perkins said, adding that the area around UNLV is "a project" for the Las Vegas police.

Also, millions of dollars in private donations and at least 200 acres of land donated by the city of Henderson are already lined up to begin the project, Perkins said.

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