Columnist Dean Juipe: New school may impact UNLV sports

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

The money has to come from somewhere. And if it's a case of everyone having to sacrifice a little to build the proposed Nevada State College at Henderson, established programs in everything from hotel management to athletics at UNLV run the risk of being impacted.

It's difficult in some respects to follow the rationale that a new university is needed in Southern Nevada.

Aren't UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada -- which has two campuses -- providing sufficient opportunity to those people in this area who want to continue their educations? Are there young men and women who want to go to college but are being turned away because there isn't space for them at UNLV and CCSN?

Of course not.

Yet the new school is a hot topic and already has a president in former CCSN kingpin Richard Moore. Assuming the remaining building blocks fall into place, work on the campus facilities could begin within a few years and the school would open for business soon thereafter.

While the State of Nevada has an amazing budget surplus that projects to reach as high as $155 million by June, that money isn't necessarily earmarked for higher education. (Given the disheveled state of educational facilities in rural Nevada, constructing a glitzy new college campus in Henderson could justifiably deserve to stand well down the line.)

In all probability, funding for the new school will come from a combination of legislative handouts and a reproportioning of existing educational funds. Translated: There could be across-the-board cuts that will affect every UNLV (and CCSN and Nevada-Reno) education and athletic program.

Like his colleagues in other university departments, Charlie Cavagnaro hopes not.

"It may not affect us at all (although) I could ultimately see a scenario where it would," the UNLV athletic director said. "There's just no way to know for sure right now. It seems as if it's still a ways down the road."

Well, yes and no.

The new university, which, in theory, will focus on developing teachers and may or may not offer intercollegiate sports, is an issue that has alarmed a number of current university instructors and professors. A recent symposium on the subject drew mixed responses from both participants and onlookers, many of whom are employed at the existing higher-education centers.

There's a fear that if the new school comes to pass, Nevada will fund it by taking money from Peter to pay Paul. If that is, indeed, the case, UNLV's 14 athletic programs may see their budgets trimmed accordingly.

While Cavagnaro rightfully believes each of the sports he oversees will survive intact, he adds that the sports segment of the university may have to buck up and raise a few more dollars on its own. "One thing the English department can't do that we can is hold a football game to raise money," Cavagnaro said, although that really doesn't address the issue in that revenue from football games and the like are routinely distributed within the athletic department.

Coaches in the "minor" sports are already beating the bushes for badly needed capital and could barely tolerate adding to their burden.

All in all there's something to be said for leaving well enough alone.

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