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What Will Sandoval's Budget Cuts Mean for CSN? | «« back |
| by JAMIE BARNARD Staff Writer | March 2011 |
"The single greatest thing we can do for our young people is prepare them for success by providing them with a quality education." This is the first sentence of Governor Brian Sandoval's education plan, but it does not seem to coincide with the extreme budget cuts that he has proposed for various aspects of education in Nevada, CSN being one of them. If adopted, these budget cuts could prove to be a very serious problem for the students, staff and faculty at CSN.
The governor's proposed budget cuts would bring negative changes toCSN such as 5 percent pay cuts, sizeable increases in tuition and fees which may result in more students being turned away due to classes being full.
According to the Las Vegas Review- Journal, this new budget could end up costing CSN $26.7 million if these changes in the
budget are approved. According to the president of CSN, Michael Richards, these cuts would eliminate 29 percent of CSN's state support. This is a problem because CSN gets 70 percent of their total funding from the state. In addition to that, the president was quoted in the article as saying, "they're basically rolling us back to fiscal year 2003 in terms of state support." This could pose a problem because CSN has over 9,000 more students than it had in 2003. President Richards stated that the mission of CSN is to provide affordable access to students. The resulting changes of these budgets cuts would greatly access to students. The resulting changes of these budgets cuts would greatly interfere with that. For instance, to compensate for these severe budget changes President Richards states an increase in tuition is unavoidable, credits would increase from $69.25 to $119.48.
A more recent article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal stated that UNLV is facing some severe budget cuts as well which might lead to UNLV declaring financial exigency, which is much like declaring bankruptcy. Administrators were disheartened when they had to inform the faculty of this news on Tuesday, February 15th. UNLV will have to cut almost twice as much from their budget as CSN will. In the past UNLV budget cuts only affected nonacademic areas however this round of budget cuts could result in departments, programs and entire colleges being eliminated. One can only wonder if this will also affect CSN.
The leaders of higher education do not support these budget cuts either and they were quoted as saying that Sandoval's proposed budget cuts would be a "death sentence" for higher education. Higher ed. leaders already voted on Sandoval's budget cuts and it was a unanimous 13-0 vote opposing the proposal according to the Las Vegas Sun. Even with that being said Higher education leaders say these changes are not likely to drive away potential students despite the extreme increase in the cost of classes.
CSN has already seen a previous round of budget cuts which resulted in classes being cut, outlying centers being closed and an elimination of 5 percent of jobs through attrition. Legislators have until June 7th, to review and amend the Sandoval budget and a decision is supposed to be reached at some point during this coming summer. School and community officials are urging students to get involved as a way of preventing these budget cuts from being passed. Considering the comments from various
officials most feel Sandoval's new budget could prove to be devastating to CSN as well as other educational institutions in Nevada. However, it remains to be seen how CSN will withstand the next round of budget cuts if approved. Look forward to an interview with President Richards and Senior Vice President of Finance and Facilities, Patty Charlton in the next issue.
