UNR president warns of more cutbacks

RENO -- Academic programs and staff would have to be reduced at the University of Nevada, Reno, to meet budget cuts being mandated by Gov. Jim Gibbons, UNR President Milton Glick told staff, faculty and students.

During a town hall meeting Wednesday, Glick said non-tenured administrative and professional faculty who have been at UNR for three years must be given notice before the July 1 start of the fiscal year if their positions are to be eliminated next year.

"That means we may have to give a significant number of non-renewal notices during the next two weeks," he said.

"No one wants to do that, but if that's what it takes to protect the institution, we will do that. What we will not do is send out mindless, blanket non-renewals."

That did not comfort Patricia Ellison, a non-tenured faculty member in the biochemistry and molecular biology department.

"I'm sure you didn't mean to give the impression, but you surely gave me the impression that we are in the direct firing line here because we are the easiest people to cut," she said.

Glick said the decisions will be based on performance and which courses or programs can be eliminated without harming the quality of the university.

The university also is developing a "one-time window" to allow tenured faculty to take early retirement, he said. Classified staff and administrative and non-tenured faculty seeking early retirement will be considered on an individual basis.

UNR also will be announcing a soft hiring freeze, filling only positions crucial to the future of the campus.

The first round of 4.5 percent budget cuts Gibbons ordered statewide for the 2008-09 budgets required UNR to trim $15 million. Glick said higher education has been told to plan for additional 2 percent to 4 percent cutbacks in the same year.

"Two percent will be very difficult; 4 percent will cause more dislocations and hard decisions," he said.

For the 2009-11 biennium, state agencies face a second governor-mandated budget cut of 14 percent to make up for a projected state shortfall approaching $1 billion.

Budget cuts of 10 to 14 percent, "will change our trajectory, not just for the short term but forever, and we will not do that," Glick said.

He also said UNR must operate more like an enterprise than an agency, using the state revenue it receives but also being empowered to use tuition increases as it sees fit.

Currently, the university gets 40 percent of tuition increases and 60 percent goes to the state's general fund. The Legislature allocates UNR operating expenses and pay raises with some of that money.

"That doesn't allow us to address our immediate needs, but it makes us operate more like an agency and not as an enterprise," Glick said. "Our students have been clear. They are willing to pay more if they get more."