UNLV president announces program cuts

Hundreds of students and dozens of faculty members at UNLV got the bad news Monday: Their programs are getting the ax.

President Neal Smatresk endorsed a committee recommendation that the University of Nevada, Las Vegas eliminate several programs in an effort to cut more than $10 million from its budget next year.

"No one wants to make these cuts," Smatresk said. "We've been forced into it under duress."

On the list to cut:

■ Educational Leadership.

■ Sports Education Leadership (but with the Professional Golf Management program relocated to another department).

■ Recreation and Sports Management.

■ Informatics.

■ Marriage and Family Therapy.

■ Urban Horticulture.

■ Clinical Laboratory Sciences.

With the exception of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Smatresk's list of programs to cut mirrors one from a committee appointed jointly by the administration and the Faculty Senate.

Smatresk notified the campus of his decision Monday, two days after the university graduated its largest class ever. His decision will need the approval of the higher education system's governing Board of Regents before going into effect. The Board is scheduled to vote on cuts at UNLV and the University of Nevada, Reno, next month.

The cuts come as no surprise to most. State lawmakers cut the state's higher education budget by 6.9 percent earlier this year because of sagging state revenues. That cut followed deeper cuts made in the two previous years.

Up to now, the university has been spreading the cuts around, largely through buyouts, hiring freezes, deferred maintenance and other stop-gap measures. The state college and the community colleges have also followed that path.

But Smatresk said to keep doing that at UNLV would be unsustainable.

The total cut to UNLV next year will be 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.

And about $4 million will be saved through a combination of cuts within the provost's office and the elimination of programs.

According to information from the university's Office of Institutional Analysis and Planning, the programs on the cut list had well over 500 students enrolled in the fall of 2009.

Those students will be allowed to continue for up to two years as they try to finish their degrees. But no new students will be admitted.

Tenured faculty will be allowed to keep their jobs, but untenured faculty and professional staffers will be laid off, though many of them will not lose their jobs for up to a year because of contracts.

Smatresk said it is difficult to say exactly how many employees will be affected because a voluntary buyout plan remains in effect.

So far, he said, about 60 people have signed up for the buyout. He estimated that more than 30 employees in nonacademic areas will be laid off and between 30 and 40 staffers in academic areas will be laid off.

Around campus, the president's announcement was met with resignation.

"I just cannot imagine not having our program anywhere in the whole state of Nevada," said Monica Lounsbery, chairwoman of the Sports Education Leadership department.

The department trains physical education teachers and school coaches. She said it was a critical program, especially now that budgets for parks and recreation and for schools are being cut.

Nevada, she said, has a serious childhood obesity problem. Without training in sports education leadership, the problem probably will worsen, she said

"At what point in time are we going to care about that?" she asked.

Smatresk said he understands that each department on the cut list is an important one.

Various programs have staged protests or submitted petitions, and representatives of nearly every one of the targeted programs has pleaded both privately and publicly with the administration.

At a hearing last week, for example, well over 100 university staffers were on hand to listen to a committee presentation or to speak in favor of their favorite programs.

Several people spoke out for Educational Leadership, the largest of the targeted programs. The program trains school administrators.

But Smatresk said he can't justify weakening the entire university to preserve every department.

"We're in a tough spot," he said. "We simply don't have enough resources to fund all the programs here."

He did not want to eliminate large departments because that would mean a loss not only of tuition and fees, but of future funding for the university.

He and the committee members tried to focus on relatively high-cost, low-enrollment departments and programs.

He said he also expects that some features of the eliminated programs could be folded into other programs or departments.

Informatics, for example, is a small, relatively new program in the computer science field. There are still two computer-science-related departments at the university.

Similarly, Marriage and Family Therapy is one of three therapy programs at the university. The other two will remain.

He said decisions about what parts of which programs could survive will be made in the coming months, so he could not offer specifics.

It is that possibility -- that some parts of her program could be preserved -- that both encourages and frustrates Lounsbery.

She is unsure how many faculty members she might lose. Three are eligible to be laid off. She said she doesn't know what to tell the rest of them to do.

"I don't have any creative tricks or tools," she said. "I don't know what the future holds. I don't know what to advise people to do."

There is a chance, given what Smatresk said about preserving some departments, that there will be a good reason to stay on at the university, she said. But no one is sure right now.

Beyond that, there are the students to consider. The department has more than 100 students in it, with more who were accepted for next fall before the ax fell.

She has no idea how many current students might leave. Nor does she have any idea how many future students simply won't show up next year.

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