I knew little about the University of Nevada, Reno, when I joined the faculty in 1992. I soon learned it was a school on the rise, albeit in a state that didn't take higher education seriously.
By 1999, Nevada still ranked 49th in the country in the number of public higher education employees per person, with four employees per thousand people. While the Nevada System of Higher Education received an above-average share of state general fund dollars, this translated into a total operating budget of only 0.60 percent of Gross State Product, one of the smallest shares in the country. The only states with similar numbers for public education had large numbers of private colleges and universities.
Even though NSHE had an open enrollment policy and a policy of low tuition enshrined in state law, Nevada had the lowest proportion of college students in the nation. Most of our best students left us for college elsewhere, and few returned. The best who remained were as good as students at top universities, but they weren't as challenged as they should've been because their competition wasn't always as good. Though some at UNR worried we would chase students away if we demanded too much from them, many faculty pushed and pushed for improvement, and gradually they made it a better university.
With Gov. Guinn's Millennium Scholarship, a growing economy, and legislative support, an effort was made to turn this around. NSHE's operating budget increased by 8.5 percent per year from FY1999 to FY2009, growing almost a full percentage point faster than our overall economy. UNR's budget grew too, not as fast as the rest of NSHE but enough to keep up with inflation and our enrollment growth. We hired new faculty, and we were increasingly able to compete against much bigger universities for the best. Our entering freshmen improved. And we slowly became one of Nevada's gems.
How much of a difference did this growth make? By 2008, NSHE employment grew to 4.1 per thousand persons, still in 49th place nationwide. The total NSHE operating budget rose to a peak of 0.65 percent of GSP. UNR attracted record numbers of National Merit Scholars, and we were eventually recognized as a first tier school and a Carnegie research university. We increased our enrollment by two-thirds, and also increased our graduation rates. Our freshman retention rate increased to 80 percent, even though the share of them eligible for Pell grants more than doubled. We even fielded a decent football team. UNR became a university I would be proud to have my son attend.
When the recession hit and the state began to pare its budgets, higher education took a relatively bigger hit. At UNR, our total operating budget is currently 15 percent less than it was two years ago. Students are paying substantially more in tuition and fees, but this only made a small dent in the
$45 million decrease in the state's general fund contribution from FY2009 to FY2011.
Now Gov. Brian Sandoval has proposed more cuts. The proposed general fund contribution to UNR will be 50 percent less in FY2013 than in FY2009, even though our enrollments keep rising, and the total operating budget will be 35 percent less. Adjusting for inflation, that would be a combined budget cut of 46 percent per student.
The university is not a set of Legos, that we can take apart and quickly rebuild. The damage we will do to Nevada's university system will take decades to undo. While a few of our best faculty have left already, most have remained because they like it here, and because they hoped things would improve. If enacted, this budget will make sure any such hope in our future is misplaced.
• Elliott Parker is professor and chair of the UNR Economics Department.