Dear CSN Family,
It was great to connect with over 300 members of the CSN family who participated in our Virtual Town Hall meeting on Friday. Your questions were on topics as varied as placement testing, furloughs, refunds, budget cuts and summer classes. I will go over some of that here for those who missed the meeting, but those interested in hearing more can view the entire meeting online in the coming days.
- We will soon deploy a new math placement testing tool, Aleks PPL, which can be completed remotely. We have a team exploring alternatives to our current placement testing for English and reading. Please look for information on placement testing soon in your CSN email.
- We will remain in a remote learning environment at least through June 30, and non-teaching staff will continue working remotely through at least the end of the spring semester.
- Students who wish to request refunds for fees our courses can file an appeal via the official Student Appeal process.
- As of now, neither the Nevada Promise Scholarship nor state-funded programs such as the Prison Education Program face cuts under our budget reduction plan.
- Students with delinquent accounts and past-due balances can still receive their diplomas, register for classes, and obtain official CSN transcripts through September 30.
- Students who are suffering financial hardship may apply for a cash grant from the CSN Student Emergency Fund.
- Faculty and staff layoffs are not part of the budget reduction plan we submitted at the direction of the chancellor and governor. Under budget cut scenarios of 10 percent or 14 percent, academic and administrative faculty furloughs of 2.3% or 4.6% are proposed for all NSHE institution employees. The details about these possible furloughs — such as when they would happen and how they would be scheduled — are among the details that our team is still working with NSHE on. At this time, potential furloughs do not affect classified employees. As always, we will communicate this information to our CSN community as soon as we know more.
There were some questions for which we do not yet have answers, some of which we said we’d get back to you on, so please keep attending our weekly town halls and watch your CSN email for messages from my office to stay up-to-date on the latest news. I look forward to talking with you and answering even more questions this Thursday in our next Virtual Town Hall. We are a family and that’s how we will remain Vegas Strong and CSN Proud.
Stay safe and God bless.
Federico Zaragoza
President
College of Southern Nevada