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Saturday, September 23, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: And now ... phantom students

So far as anyone knew, the Community College of Southern Nevada had been posting annual enrollment gains of 10 to 15 percent under the stewardship of former president Richard Moore, who recently departed to head an effort to create a teachers college in Henderson.

The Legislature allocated additional funds for CCSN this year, in the expectation that growth would continue, from 35,000 students to more than 38,000. But that's not going to happen. In fact, Steve Sisolak, chairman of the Board of Regents audit committee, reports the college may show no growth at all this year, because past enrollment figures appear to have been padded via "misleading" accounting methods.

In a special promotion, CCSN last year collected state subsidies to cover the cost of providing "one free class" to each of 3,700 area residents who signed up.

But only about 2,000 of those students actually completed their class and received grades.

No problem. The college simply counted as part of its yearly enrollment -- filing for and collecting state subsidies based on that count -- all the students who withdrew and received partial refunds.

"If you do not get all your money back, you are counted," explains college Associate Vice President Arlie Stops.

The college has also come under criticism for counting in its enrollment figures some 1,600 union apprentices who got college credit for training they received from union instructors. On paper, the college used tuition funds paid by the apprentices or their unions to "rent" the classroom space where such classes are conducted at local union halls. University system Chancellor Jane Nichols is investigating that interesting bit of bookkeeping -- along with the phantom drop-outs. ...

"We should not be getting funding for students who are not showing up," emphasizes regent Sisolak, in a bit of an understatement. "It's misleading, if not fraudulent, to report these enrollment figures to the state."

Former president Moore had a gift for marketing, and his efforts were rightly celebrated when they made more local residents aware of what the college had to offer, resulting in the facilities being put to increased use.

Growth can also lead to confusion, and inadvertent misallocation of resources. That explanation would be the "best case" explanation for what's now showing up at CCSN.

Unfortunately, there remains another possibility. Did "growth" became a goal in and of itself at CCSN, a form of empire building pursued in order to lay hands on more state funds, even when that meant casting a blind eye on bookkeeping sleight-of-hand?

Mr. Sisolak now calls for an audit. Rightly so.

Enrollments apparently padded with phantom students are only the latest indication that a thorough, outside audit of CCSN's enrollment, finances, and spending is long overdue.

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