UNLV faculty warned higher ed system may be forced to declare bankruptcy

UNLV is planning on bankruptcy.

That was the message the university's administrators delivered to a gathering of faculty on Tuesday.

"I never thought this day would come," said Michael Bowers, the provost. He paused, on the verge of breaking down. "But we have to plan in case it does."

President Neal Smatresk told the Faculty Senate that he hopes budget cuts proposed by Gov. Brian Sandoval do not become reality. But university officials are moving ahead as if they will.

"To not prepare would leave our institution horribly vulnerable," he said.

Smatresk said he believes the state's higher education system will have to declare financial exigency, a declaration similar to bankruptcy, to deal with the cuts.

Such a declaration would allow the higher education system to fire tenured faculty without regard to contracts. Bylaws already were changed last year to allow salary cuts on tenured faculty if the Legislature implements them.

"Our state is nearing a state of fiscal collapse," Smatresk said.

James Dean Leavitt, chairman of the Board of Regents, said the board would consider exigency a last resort only.

Under Sandoval's proposal, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas will have to cut $47.5 million from its budget over the next two years. Smatresk said the university already cut $49 million in the past four years.

Most of the past cuts were focused on nonacademic areas, and most were done on an across-the-board basis.

But Smatresk said that is not possible anymore. He said departments, programs and perhaps even entire colleges will have to be eliminated. Last year, the university cut several programs to deal with cuts.

Bowers, in a memo sent Tuesday to the university's deans and vice presidents, said more across-the-board cuts will "do nothing other than to ensure the mediocrity of all programs."

He said $25 million of the $47.5 million cuts this time will have to come from academic areas.

In his memo, Bowers outlined the amounts each college will have to cut. The cuts will be proportional to what percentage of the university's overall state-supported budget the college normally gets.

For example, if a college normally gets 10 percent of the overall state-supported budget, it will have to cut 10 percent of the total $25 million, or $2.5 million.

The largest cuts, according to Bowers' memo, will be:

■ The College of Liberal Arts, $3.77 million

■ The School of Dental Medicine, $2.90 million

■ The College of Sciences, $2.82 million

■ The libraries, $2.75 million

■ The College of Business, $2.45 million

■ The College of Fine Arts, $2.31 million

"These targets are going to be difficult to meet," Bowers told Tuesday's faculty gathering. "They are going to be painful to meet. No doubt about it."

Bowers gave the deans a deadline of Feb. 25 to respond with recommendations on how to cut those amounts from their colleges' budgets.

Once that is done, administrators will make their recommendations to a faculty advisory committee, which will then make a recommendation to the president. Smatresk will have the final decision.

Smatresk cautioned that although the request for ideas about what to cut spreads them equally, that will not happen in reality.

"We will cut more from some colleges and less from others," he said.

He said the main goal will be to preserve the university's core mission of research and teaching.

Gerry Bomotti, senior vice president for finance and business, said the plans assume several things, including a 10 percent student fee increase in each of the next two years and a 5 percent salary cut for all university employees. Only the higher education system's Board of Regents could implement those, however.

Many in the room seemed stunned when the three administrators were through speaking.

Faculty Senate President Cecilia Maldonado had prepared a statement to read. In it, she said she was sad and angry and sick.

She said she was sick of political ideology. Sick of people who attack faculty salaries. Sick of hearing that Nevadans don't value education. Sick that this same debate about whether higher education is a "cost" or an "investment" has been going on for 20 years.

"I'm sick that we never seem to learn our lessons," she said.

Maldonado said the cuts will make it difficult to recruit and retain talented faculty and students.

She began to cry, then composed herself and continued, saying the higher education system should impose cuts elsewhere to save UNLV.

The room broke into applause when she was through.

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

POTENTIAL CUTS AT UNLV

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Comments

Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

1. BIH Mar. 8, 2011 | 1:13 p.m. Report Abuse

   Well, it's obvious that most of you are NOT students at UNLV...struggling with working full time while going to school full time, receiving no financial aid, just so you can recieve an education in a field for which you have a passion. All this work, time, and money just so you don't have to wake up every morning to go to a job you hate that doesn't even cover to cost of living.
   
   Now, I'm supposed to find more money from a magical place that doesn't exist, just so I can finish my education (expect graduation date: May 2013.) It doesn't matter how autodidactic I am, if I don't have that piece of paper I can't move onto something better. Employers no longer care about ability as much as they do the degree (a debate I have had many times with my company's Vice Presidents.)

2. vinnie-the-enforcer Mar. 7, 2011 | 9:55 a.m. Report Abuse

   This is SO sad. What it means is that UNLV and the State of Nevada are paying for bad decisions and horrible Regent oversight of the last 30 years. Add to that the determination shown by the gaming companies to keep diversity in business out of the state, and the failure of UNLV to work with businesses (also beginning 30 years ago) to foster new business creation and field studies for existing businesses other than gaiming-related, and you have the current lack of business and community support. The solutions are not easy: (1) QUIT sending half the local tax money North and have it remain here in Las Vegas to support UNLV, (2) CLOSE several colleges and fields of study to make the remaining ones stronger, (3) REACH OUT to non-gaming businesses and involve UNLV in business growth and entrepreneurship to the benefit of both UNLV and community businesses. Want an example? Look at how the Anderson School at UCLA avoided shutting down in the face of massive budget cuts. I'm sure there are other colleges out there who have pulled off the same survival tactics.

3. LiberalAmerica Feb. 19, 2011 | 11:05 p.m. Report Abuse

   I believe the appropriate and fitting response would be a quote from a movie that all these "commun"-ists are very familiar with: "Yesss! Show your hate! Let it flow! Join the dark side!" Gotta love the show of anger by those that expect a handout toward those that provide the handouts.

4. Guillermo_Syd Feb. 19, 2011 | 12:35 p.m. Report Abuse

   Liberalamerica is a FOOL. It's truly amazing to me (and no less tragic) that even in these dire economic times that people will cling to "every man for himself" to the very end. If you want to spread isolationist bullsh*t go do it on Fox news you utter fool.
   
   I agree with you Billofrights, the university system has been and always should be an INTEGRAL part (if not THE integral part) of a society of educated and cultured peoples; where the hell is the community support here? Why is it that billions of dollars pass through our hotels every day and UNLV, the top hotel service college in the country, is not receiving any support from them?! It's a question of investment and preservation-one arm of a COMMUNITY helping another arm because they're CONNECTED.
   
   To approach both comments of the people I mentioned before: new problems equals new solutions. We're all in this together (HENCE COMMUNITY); to pretend we're not is being beyond inhuman, but just ignorant and stupid.

5. tjm2 Feb. 18, 2011 | 10:27 p.m. Report Abuse

   Right, it is a bit overused. Delete that phrase and it is better, thanks.

6. gbigs Feb. 18, 2011 | 5:53 p.m. Report Abuse

   "With that being said" is a tired, trite, useless phrase.
   
   fear not your school going under, intstead, fear the useless education you are getting...

7. tjm2 Feb. 18, 2011 | 12:39 p.m. Report Abuse

   A note to the recent interesting comments: One can slant and skew a word or condition in any direction, when based on one opinion. With that being said, all this negative commentary and flux of emotions seems to just bring confusion.. So, facts stated and reviewed can bring actual results. -- Anyhow; I go to Unlv. Do I want to pay more than I am now? No. Do I fear Unlv may financially collapse? Yes, I do. Hopefully something positive that will not effect the students and faculty, can be created. Where does the problem stem from? Maybe we ought to search for the root of the problem rather than trying to repeatedly apply 'hopeful fixes' for what the current crisis seems to be. ..But that's just my thought.

8. Anya Feb. 18, 2011 | 9:02 a.m. Report Abuse

   The bankruptcy move is a FORMALITY TO VOID THOSE OUTRAGEOUS PROFESSOR PAY CONTRACTS. Wouldn't be necessary if university administration had some brains to use. Stimulus funds were one-time money--the state is NOT GOING TO REPLACE STIMULUS MONEY.

9. Alvinjh Feb. 18, 2011 | 3:02 a.m. Report Abuse

   We'll read about "BILLofRIGHTS702" in the paper one day. (Try not to get shot by metro hothead)

10. LiberalAmerica Feb. 17, 2011 | 3:33 p.m. Report Abuse

    A purported believer in the Bill of Rights recently posted: "The community needs to care. As much as you people hate it, you live in a COMMUNITY..." Ever notice how the term "communism" has the same word origin and base as "community?" That's not a coincidence. Let's look at these phrases: "We should all sacrifice for the good of the community." "The needs of the community outweigh the needs of the individual." "It takes a village (community) to raise a child." "From each according to their ability to each according to their need." All of these fit Mr. Bill of Rights' arguments. Please read The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and compare these arguments to his. Then re-read the US Constitution and the real Bill of Rights. You may learn some new things about the core beliefs in your arguments.

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