Board approves elimination of UNLV programs

RENO -- The process of shrinking UNLV that began months ago ended Thursday when a half dozen departments and programs were officially eliminated.

Marriage and family therapy, informatics, clinical laboratory sciences, sports education leadership, educational leadership and urban horticulture were cut from the university's lineup of some 60 programs.

"This is a sad moment not only at UNLV, but in Board of Regents history," said Teresa Jordan, professor and chair of the educational leadership department.

About a dozen students, faculty and staff spoke on behalf of programs at UNLV and the University of Nevada, Reno. Despite those pleas, the Board of Regents voted to OK cuts recommended by the two university presidents.

"Our two universities have been through extraordinary cuts already," said Neal Smatresk, president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Several regents and higher education Chancellor Dan Klaich said making the cuts was among the most difficult tasks they've undertaken.

"We're talking about the elimination of programs. The elimination of faculty. Closing opportunities for students," Klaich said at the meeting, held on UNR's campus. "There's nothing easy about that."

The eliminations are expected to affect more than 500 UNLV students and dozens of faculty and staff members. Staffers and nontenured faculty will be laid off. Tenured faculty will be allowed to continue, though many are expected to enter the job market because their departments will no longer exist.

Students in the eliminated programs will be given up to two years to finish. New students will not be allowed to enroll in the programs.

For the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, the university has to cut about $10.7 million. About $1 million will be cut from areas off the main campus, such as the dental and law schools. About $5.7 million will be cut from nonacademic areas, largely administration.

About $4 million will be saved through a combination of $1 million in cuts within the provost's office and $3 million in the elimination of programs.

The cuts come as no surprise. State lawmakers cut the state's higher education budget by 6.9 percent earlier this year because of sagging state revenues. That followed deeper cuts made in the two previous years. UNLV officials say state funding was cut 31 percent over three years.

Up to now, the university absorbed the cuts with student fee increases and by spreading around savings, largely through buyouts, hiring freezes, deferred maintenance and other stop-gap measures. Smatresk said 70 people had volunteered so far to take the buyout.

The state college and the community colleges have followed similar paths and plan to continue doing so next year without eliminating programs. Those plans were OK'd last month by the regents.

But the universities are different. Both UNLV and the University of Nevada, Reno are eliminating programs.

Both university presidents said to keep making across-the-board cuts would not be sustainable. Smatresk said such a path would weaken the university as a whole and reduce quality for everyone.

A committee made up of faculty and administrative appointees spent the past several months going over which programs could be eliminated. They began with a list of the university's so-called "most expensive" programs.

Smatresk accepted the committee's recommendations and added clinical laboratory sciences to the list. CLS came in fifth on the infamous list.

Despite that, pleas were made by those in some of the affected programs, particularly those from CLS. Students who were expecting to start the program in the fall were especially vocal.

"We students have worked for years to get to this point only to feel like we've had the rug pulled out from under us," said Carla Snyder, who has studied as a pre clinical lab sciences major for two years and expected to enter the program this fall. She said she was speaking for 25 students in similar circumstances.

"Please don't cut us off at this point and dismiss the efforts we've made thus far," she said.

David Rapoport, UNLV's new student body president, and Kyle George, president of the graduate and professional student association, said overall students reluctantly support the eliminations.

"I don't like the direction we've taken as a state," said George. He called the higher education system a mess and that the universities were left to clean it up.

"And I don't think we have enough toilet paper."

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