Budget Updates > Letter to the Campus Community, May 13, 2009
Dear Colleagues,
As you are aware, on Tuesday the leaders of the Nevada State Legislature made final recommendations and closed the state budget for higher education. The final higher education budget must now go to the full Assembly and Senate for passage, before it will be forwarded to Gov. Jim Gibbons. If Gov. Gibbons chooses to veto the budget, it would then be sent back to both houses of the legislature for reconsideration.
No doubt you have read in the media or have seen news reports that the budget for higher education closed at a 12.5 percent reduction from the original ’09 state appropriation. It is important to clarify this figure as it relates to our campus. While the 12.5 percent figure is the overall percentage reduction for the Nevada System of Higher Education, that percentage reduction was not applied equally among the System’s member institutions. In fact, our best understanding is that the University of Nevada, Reno will need to take a 15-plus percent reduction. While this reduction includes the cuts we have already made this year, it nonetheless reflects a total reduction of approximately $32.5 million for our campus.
Over the past year, we have worked with various campus constituencies to both implement and prepare for a budget reduction. We have placed our emphasis on protecting the core teaching, research and outreach missions of our institution throughout these meetings. We have substantially reduced administrative functions more than academic functions. We have reduced centers and institutes disproportionately making them more reliant on grant, gift and self-generated revenues. At this point, we have made campus reductions totaling about $31.9 million. However, there are other campus commitments, including our temporary instruction budget totaling about $3.1 million, which push the total shortfall to more than $4 million.
In the next few days, we will be working with our vice presidents, deans and faculty leadership in an effort to finalize our plan for the budget reduction. We will also be using the next week to meet with any parties who will be affected by the planning in order to make them aware of reductions that could directly impact them. Throughout this process, our priorities have remained firm. Our decisions continue to be driven by the overriding long-term goal of ensuring that the University can succeed in its teaching and research functions, with the additional goal that we will be in a position to improve as the economy freshens.
It is critical that we remain mindful that our students’ best interests and ultimate success remain at the forefront of what we do. As we have discussed with our student leadership, there will likely be an additional tuition increase. Undergraduate tuition is already slated to increase by 5 percent, and we remain committed to a tuition increase of no more than 5 percent on top of this earlier tuition increase. This tuition increase will help us set aside needed money for student financial aid, which will be further augmented by federal programs that will provide education tax credits, increases in Pell Grant funding and continuation of our own Pack Advantage program for low-income students.
If there is one message I would like to emphasize to our students, it is that you should not despair about the cost of college. You should seek financial aid advice from the Financial Aid Office on our campus, and, with the proper mixture of financial aid and loans, your college education will remain a wise investment for your future. Our students should also know that we remain committed to offering quality classes necessary for graduation. There is no sugar-coating the reality of harder times on campus, however: there will be less selection of all classes, your classes might be larger, and they could be offered at less convenient times than in the past. Good counseling and good advice from your colleges will be imperative in the coming months.
Regarding salary reductions, it is our understanding that the state legislature has implemented a mandatory salary reduction for classified staff, as well as an anticipated salary reduction for professional staff. I have great concern about reducing classified staff salaries disproportionately. If we must accomplish salary reductions, we will advocate for furloughs rather than base reductions of salary. Whatever salary reductions are mandated, they will be part of the reductions above, and not in addition.
As we conclude the academic year – embarking on another round of budget reductions in a year of budget reductions – I would like to remind all of the members of our campus community that our University is steadfast in its commitment to its future. We remain firm in the goal of strategic investment in the future. We are positioned to look to our future because of the extraordinary commitment that you – our faculty, staff and students – have shown, in extraordinarily trying times. I cannot emphasize too strongly my gratitude for the collaborative, principled participation of all members of the University family as we have dealt with unprecedented economic difficulties experienced by our University, the state and throughout the world. My gratitude extends beyond our campus to our many advisory boards, friends and alumni in the community, and key legislators who through their selfless efforts have shown that they prize the promise of a college degree as much as our campus does.
The Board of Regents will be meeting by video conference at 8 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, May 14, at the NSHE Board Office, to further discuss our budget situation. We encourage all of you to attend a Town Hall meeting for our campus, which will be held at 10 a.m. in the Ballroom of the Joe Crowley Student Union on Monday, May 18.
As always, I will be there along with the campus’ leadership, and I will welcome your questions, suggestions and thoughts as we move forward.
Sincerely,
Milton Glick
President