CSN wins approval to trim planned fee

By SCOTT WYLAND and LAWRENCE MOWER

College of Southern Nevada officials were allowed Friday to reduce a planned $4.50-per-credit surcharge to $2.75.

The Board of Regents approved the slimmed-down surcharge, which will total $41.25 per semester for CSN students taking 15 credits.

The three community colleges in other areas of Nevada were allowed to impose a $2.75 per credit surcharge during a regents meeting in January.

University of Nevada, Reno students will see a $5 per credit surcharge. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Nevada State College have chosen not to impose such fees.

College presidents have said the surcharges were needed to make up for budget cuts mandated by Gov. Jim Gibbons. Gibbons said the cuts are needed to make up for tax revenue shortfalls.

College and university presidents statewide are also slashing faculty merit pay in half next year to make up for the cuts.

CSN officials had asked regents to impose the higher surcharge in January. But during the board's meeting Friday, they chose to make the cut less severe.

The surcharge will begin in the fall and end June, 30, 2009.

The Board of Regents will decide in April whether to increase college tuitions by 5 percent in the 2009-10 school year.

College officials said they wanted the surcharge to end before the tuitions were raised, so students don't get hit with the surcharge and the tuition increase simultaneously.

No one wanted to impose fees or pare teachers' pay raises, but those actions couldn't be avoided, Board of Regents Chairman Michael Wixom said.

"I think this is the last thing these (college) presidents wanted," he said.

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at (702) 383-0440 lmower@reviewjournal.com.