UNR, WNC propose surcharge to help offset budget cuts

Students and the faculty will bear a significant chunk of university system budget cuts under plans submitted to the board of regents Friday.

The board meets Monday to review and make final decisions on recommendations from the state's eight campuses. The system, like every other agency receiving state general fund money, has been asked to chop spending 4.5 percent because tax revenues are coming in short of projections used to build the state's budget.

According to the 52 page briefing issued by the chancellor's office, faculty across the state have agreed to wait until January 2009 for their merit pool pay increases. System wide, that saves almost $4.5 million.

All campuses except the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have requested authority to put a per credit surcharge on student fees. At the University of Nevada, Reno, that charge will be $5 per credit. At Western Nevada College, Great Basin and Truckee Meadows, it will be $2.75 a credit. But the College of Southern Nevada wants to hit its students with $4.50 per credit.

The added student charges will support just over $5 million in reductions. But it will add $75 a semester to the typical full time student's bill at UNR.

The student and faculty savings, however, make up less than 20 percent of the $57.5 million the regents have been asked to cut. The majority, $34.3 million, will come from campus operating funds under the proposals submitted to the regents.

But campus officials assured regents in their proposals the cuts won't shut down large numbers of class sections or require that faculty be fired.

Another $8 million will come from delays or cancellation of capital improvement projects and $1.5 million by doing the same with "one-shot" projects.

That list includes not opening UNR's new library this coming year and turning back some furnishings, fittings and equipment money for several projects around the state.

Each campus submitted plans for a 4.5 percent reduction in general fund spending. Western Nevada College President Carol Lucey said that is more difficult for small colleges such as WNC and Great Basin College because, in many service areas, there is only one person and reducing staff shuts down that office.

She said 94 percent of WNC's general fund money goes to personnel, so the school's hiring freeze has an unavoidable negative effect on student services.

The board of regents, however, has the power to consider that issue and, possibly, shift a bit more of the burden to the larger campuses.

Even though the impact will hurt student services on all campuses, university officials say it's much less damaging than the 8 percent cuts that would have been necessary had the governor stuck with his original plan to exempt K-12 education from the cuts.

WNC faced closure of all satellite locations, leaving only the Carson City and Fallon campuses in operation. CSN in Las Vegas faced a similar situation as did Truckee Meadows.

Once the board makes its final decisions for each campus, the package will be submitted to Gov. Jim Gibbons, who is expected to announce all state agency cuts before the end of the month.

The regents meeting will be held in Las Vegas but will be broadcast to the rest of the state online.

• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.

Streaming video of the Board of Regents meeting

When: 9 a.m. Monday

Go to the College of Southern Nevada Web site at http://www.csn.edu/

Click on the link to "LIVE VIDEO"

NOTE: You will need a high speed Internet connection to view and listen to the meeting.