CSN to cap enrollment to handle cuts
Students looking to attend the College of Southern Nevada next semester should sign up for classes as early as possible.
The school is going to run out of room. Fast.
President Michael Richards outlined Thursday how the college plans to absorb the latest round of budget cuts. The state’s higher education system has to cut the budget by 6.9 percent. At CSN, this translates to about $8.4 million between now and July 2011.
What that will mean is that there will be fewer classes, those classes will be fuller, students won’t get the optimum choices on class times, there will be fewer support services available, such as tutoring, and more classes will be taught by part-time instructors.
“That’s our world,” Richards told a crowd gathered on the West Charleston campus for the latest town hall meeting.
“It’s a de facto enrollment cap,” he said.
Like the rest of state government, the higher education system has seen its state-funded budget shrink repeatedly for the past two years.
At the community college, where enrollment has doubled to top 43,000 since 1995, that has generally meant across the board cuts. That strategy will continue.
The state’s two universities, however, plan to eliminate entire departments to meet their budget cutting goals.
The college and university presidents are expected to outline their plans next week before the system’s governing Board of Regents.
Richards tried to focus on the positives on Thursday. Though the college has announced a buyout program, it has no plans for pay cuts or layoffs.
Patty Charleton, the college’s vice president for finance, outlined how CSN plans to implement the cuts.
In addition to the buyouts, the college is reaping the savings from closing several satellite centers last year. It will freeze open administrative jobs, save money on renegotiated contracts and software agreements, and force departments to become more efficient.
On the ground, that will mean less academic advisement, a cutback in operating hours for the library, and students will have to pay for printing services at the library and computer labs.
“We’re tired of budget cuts,” Charleton acknowledged. “We are tired of hearing it. We are tired of having to continually address this issue.”
Richards said the college’s classes are 95 percent full. That’s an increase from past years.
He said that, if it were fully funded, the college would probably see growth in excess of 6 percent. But with the cuts, it will only be able to handle 3 percent growth. That will mean students who want to get in won’t be able to.
“A community college should not have to confess that,” Richards said. “But we cannot accommodate all student demand.”
And that reality is not likely to end soon. State tax revenue is expected to fall well short of needs in the next biennium, meaning the cuts are likely to continue next year.
Aimee Riley, a student senator, said she had met with political leaders who told her student involvement kept the last round of cuts from being higher. She and student body president Nathaniel Waugh encouraged students to lobby lawmakers.
“Get involved,” Waugh said.
Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.