Smatresk sees hires, not more cuts at UNLV

Life is almost back to normal at UNLV, its leader told a gathering of hundreds of students, faculty and staff on Monday.

President Neal Smatresk opened a town hall meeting by announcing what he was not doing: "I'm not, for the first time in four years, announcing budget cuts," he said. "We are no longer in a position where we are worried about where the next ax will fall."

Cuts over the past several years have shrunk the university by more than 700 positions, he said. Enrollment is down slightly, too, and several programs have been eliminated.

But instead of cuts, Smatresk announced Monday that the university would be hiring about 90 new faculty and staff, largely focused on student services.

The higher education system's Board of Regents approved a tuition hike last month that will go into effect next year. The 8 percent increase will end up netting UNLV about $5 million, Smatresk said.

The regents only approved the tuition hike after agreeing that the extra money would be used at the state's colleges and universities to improve student services, such as counseling and library services.

Smatresk said he called the town hall meeting after fielding questions from staff about how the university is doing. He said he believed the university soon would be able to focus more on research and strengthening itself than it has in recent years.

In response to questions from the audience, he said he did not think a pending rewrite of the formula used to allocate funds to the state's colleges and universities pitted the northern schools against the southern schools, although that perception exists in the public.

"No doubt people will see it as a north-south fight," he said. "That is simply not the case, nor should it be the case."

Several questions from employees concerned cuts to benefits, something government employees in nearly every state agency have been complaining about.

Gerry Bomotti, the university's vice president for finance, said a committee he is on to study the problem should have recommendations for the Board of Regents soon.

Sarah Saenz, student body president at UNLV, asked Smatresk about keeping student tuition and fees on campus. Currently, the state subtracts the amount of tuition collected by an institution from the tax money it gets.

Smatresk has long complained that the university "loses" millions per year under this arrangement, largely because it has the most out-of-state students of any institution in Nevada.

Out-of-state students pay more, so the extra money UNLV collects ends up being split among all of the state's colleges and universities.

Smatresk assured Saenz that changing that policy was among his priorities.

Chancellor Dan Klaich, who attended the meeting, weighed in to say that he endorses the university's position.

Lastly, responding to a question about a slight dip in enrollment this year, Smatresk said he expected the university to begin marketing itself again, something that it has done very little of since budget cuts began.

"It's time we did a little promotion," he said.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.