Budget woes prompt cuts at CSN, affecting tutoring during finals week

Facing a slashed budget and the need to trim spending by $1.8 million this academic year, the College of Southern Nevada has introduced sweeping cost-cutting measures as school leaders prepare to ask for more money from the state next month.

Students will notice one big change soon: While about 35,000 tackle final exams this week, CSN will close most of its tutorial facilities from Wednesday through Friday, reducing service hours at its Centers for Academic Success stations significantly during the last week of the fall semester. All tutoring services at CSN's Cheyenne and Henderson campuses will be shuttered on those days, with limited offerings at its Charleston campus on Wednesday and Thursday.

"I have a 4.0 (grade point average), and that's because I get help from a tutor," said Lea Hallet, who visits the centers weekly and is one test away from an associate's degree in accounting. Hallet, 40, is taking the timed, web-based exam this week as part of an online course. Her deadline is next Sunday.

"Not every online class runs smoothly, and it's detrimental when they say they're closing tutoring on finals week," Hallet said.

Administrators say the cutbacks — affecting everything from maintenance services to library resources at CSN's three campuses — are intended to shrink expenses by 15 percent this year after tumbling enrollment diminished funding, exacerbating previous losses dealt by recent changes in Nevada's higher education funding model. Closing some of the tutoring facilities this week, along with other cost-saving measures during the spring semester, will save $186,000 this fiscal year.

CSN officials say the school was already short $2.8 million this fiscal year because of the new funding formula, which was approved two years ago by legislators seeking to re-balance funding among each of the seven schools in the Nevada System of Higher Education. The new model was designed to equally share money among schools in the north and south using weighted student credit hours, giving less money to schools where fewer students complete their coursework. Now, leaders at CSN — the state's biggest college — say that model has badly reduced budgets for open-access schools serving non-traditional students who are more likely to drop out of their classes.

CSN students "have jobs, they have families," school President Mike Richards said last week. "At the last minute they may decide just not to show up (to class)."

Richards says the financial loss caused by the new formula was even harder to weather after the school logged a 3.6 percent enrollment slump this semester compared with last year, which brought an additional $1.8 million loss that the school is trying to balance through the 15 percent cut.

Troubled by CSN's ailing budget, school officials are assembling a proposal asking state education leaders to push for changes to the funding formula during next year's legislative session. Richards plans to present the plan to NSHE's Board of Regents next month when the group meets for a special session.

Administrators say they were careful to target seldom-used services at CSN when they made the cuts. And full-time employees won't be affected — many who work at the school's tutoring centers, for instance, are part-time workers. Associate Vice President James McCoy, who oversees the Centers for Academic Success, said the school opted to shut down the tutoring center during the latter portion of finals week because most CSN students take their exams Mondays and Tuesdays. The math and writing tutoring centers at CSN's Charleston campus will maintain regular hours through Thursday, although face-to-face tutoring for other subjects won't be readily available. Students can also access unlimited tutoring during the rest of finals week through the school's online portal, Smarthinking.

"Student success is our number one priority," McCoy said. "We are making data-informed decisions to minimize the impact that these budget cuts have."

Instructors, meanwhile, have offered to help by volunteering to tutor those who need extra help this week. CSN Faculty Senate Chair Camille Naaktgeboren, who teaches biology courses, said more than a dozen professors have signed up to help students cram for finals while the tutoring centers are closed.

"It's a tough time, and certainly we don't want to see students harmed in any way," Naaktgeboren said. "We're doing what we can."

Contact Ana Ley at aley@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Find her on Twitter @la__ley.