A series of forums and planning meetings to develop a response from the University of Nevada, Reno campus regarding the state’s budget crisis will commence at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16, in the Joe Crowley Student Union, Faculty Senate Chairperson Elliott Parker announced in an email on Friday.

The Feb. 16 event will be held in the Great Room on the fourth floor of the Joe Crowley Student Union. Forums will also be held Feb. 17 and Feb. 18, each beginning at 7 p.m. and held in the Great Room.

“This is intended to be more of a teach-in than a walk-out, an effort to educate students on the problems and to propose intelligent solutions that best benefit the state,” Parker wrote. In a town hall meeting earlier this week, campus administrators talked about severe budget cuts that the campus will face once a special session of the Nevada State Legislature is held on Feb. 23 in Carson City.

Parker’s email indicated that the purpose of the forums is “to provide information regarding the crisis that will allow people to formulate a sensible and effective response to the present budget shortfall and to find ways to make use of the intellectual power concentrated in the University to develop short term and long term solutions to the problems we in Nevada face.”

The plan is to hold a series of forums and meetings in the evenings, “… so that we can better inform the public as to the purposes we serve, purposes that serve the public.”

Tentatively scheduled speakers include President Milt Glick, Provost Marc Johnson and Parker on Feb. 16; Vice Chancellor Jane Nichols and Reynolds School of Journalism Dean Jerry Ceppos on Feb. 17; Faculty members Glenn Miller and Michael Robinson on Feb. 18.