Higher ed cuts: ‘no silver bullet’
No matter how the state's higher education leaders implement the latest round of budget cuts, the consequences will be dire. They will make some people angry. They will make it harder for some students to get their degrees.
The college and university presidents could make across-the-board cuts, as they've already been doing for going on two years. There will be larger class sizes, fewer available classes, hiring freezes, buyouts, things like that.
They could eliminate programs entirely. Expensive or smaller programs are generally the targets at the two universities.
They could reduce their biggest expense by cutting salaries. Pay and benefits account for 77 percent of all the general fund tax money spent on higher education in Nevada.
Or they could work out a combination of those cuts, which is the most likely scenario.
"There's no silver bullet," said Gregory Brown, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas history professor and the president of the Nevada Faculty Alliance there. "There is no one thing that will fix it."
State lawmakers last month cut the higher education system's budget by 6.9 percent for the rest of this fiscal year and for next year. The system's governing Board of Regents will decide how to spread the cuts around to the colleges and universities, probably at its meeting this week.
College and university presidents will have to decide exactly how they'll implement the cuts at each of their schools, though the board will have to sign off on any plans before they're undertaken. That decision is scheduled for June.
The College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College are likely to spread the cuts around the schools. The cuts could make it harder for some students to get into needed classes, imposing what might become a de facto enrollment cap at two schools, which have seen rapid growth in recent years.
But the universities have announced plans to cut programs. The leaders say there is no other choice.
At UNLV, $9 million must be cut from the budget in the next fiscal year. President Neal Smatresk said he plans on cutting $5 million from support areas, and $4 million from academic programs themselves.
"I don't like this any more than you do, but simply don't know how to cut 9 mill(ion) total without very painful closures," Smatresk wrote in an e-mail to Regent Mark Alden.
Alden is upset that some programs he sees as vital to the university might be cut. Among them is the English Language Center, where Alden's wife studies.
"Cutting out needed programs is stupid," Alden wrote to Smatresk.
So Alden is pitching a controversial plan that would cut salaries anywhere from 2 percent to 8 percent. The higher the salary, the larger the cut.
"I'm going for it," Alden said. "Whether I have the votes, who knows?"
He almost certainly will not have the votes. Cutting the salaries of employees under contract or who have tenure is almost impossible.
Doing it would require the board to declare financial exigency, which is akin to them throwing up their hands and saying, "We can't pay our bills."
Such a declaration would be a first and could have several bad consequences, opponents say.
"There are few alternatives that are worse than exigency," professor Brown said.
To make the declaration, the system's chancellor would have to recommend it to the board. He has no plans to do so.
"The board has had a number of discussions on financial exigency, and every time the board has discussed it, the consensus is that there would be a highly negative result," Chancellor Dan Klaich said. "It should only be taken as a last resort."
But the b oard is scheduled at its meeting Friday to make some changes to its governing code. Among them would be a requirement that budget cuts be 10 percent or greater before financial exigency is declared.
Some say the declaration would damage the system's credit. They say it would also ruin its reputation, not only with potential future students and faculty, but with those who are in the system now.
"I think it sends a chilling message nationwide about the state our system is in," Klaich said.
Brown pointed out that many who work at the colleges and universities already have taken a pay cut.
All state employees were given a 4.6 percent cut by the Legislature last year. At the universities, that means classified employees -- administrative assistants, groundskeepers and the like -- took the cut.
But professional staff and faculty are not, technically, state employees. They are employees of the higher education system. Under the system's bylaws, those employees are under contract. The contracts can be changed only with a year's notice unless financial exigency is declared.
The board did give those employees notice last summer that they would be taking a pay cut in a year.
Without a declaration of exigency, the salaries of tenured faculty cannot be cut. The b oard ordered a workload increase for faculty, which Brown contends means they're doing more work for the same money. He equates that to a pay cut.
At this week's meeting, the board also is scheduled to vote on a proposal that would allow pay cuts next year without a declaration of exigency. The plan would allow no more than an 8 percent cut over a two-year period, with no more than a 12 percent cut over four years.
But Alden wants to do more. He is pitching a plan that would cut salaries by these amounts :
■ 2 percent cut for salaries up to $75,000
■ 4 percent cut for salaries between $75,000 and $100,000
■ 6 percent cut for salaries between $100,000 and $150,000
■ And 8 percent cut for salaries more than $150,000
An analysis of the plan presented by Klaich to the rest of the regents estimated the plan would save more than $11 million, which is about half of the overall savings the system must find. Most of the savings would come from the two universities, where salaries are higher than they are at the colleges.
It would save almost $4 million at UNLV, for example, where Smatresk said $9 million must be cut.
Alden said cutting salaries could save vital programs from being eliminated.
But that's at the cost, the skeptics argue, of damaging the entire system.
"It's a game changer," Klaich said.
Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.
