The CSN Chronicle
Greetings and welcome to The CSN Chronicle for April 2010. This is an opportunity for me to share information with the CSN family and to address questions that have broad interest.
Board of Regents Meetings
A special meeting of the Board of Regents was held on Friday, April 16th at DRI in Las Vegas. The purpose of the meeting was to receive and act on budget reduction plans, and to adopt tuition and fee recommendations for the next biennium. As a follow-up to our town hall meeting the previous week, I wanted to let you know that CSN’s plan was presented and approved with no changes. On June 2-4 in Reno, the Board will hold its next regular meeting. A salient theme for that meeting is the legislative request for the 2011 session.
| Preliminary spring semester enrollment at CSN was 43,431 headcount, up 6.7 percent over the previous year, and 22,060 FTE, up 5.6 percent over the previous year. Preliminary enrollments are reported mid semester by all NSHE institutions. Final enrollment reports are provided at the end of each semester. |
Budget Status
As many of you know, CSN prepared a budget reduction plan for the remaining 16 months of the current biennium, and the plan has been shared internally, posted on the web, and approved for implementation. Our initial budget included a reserve of approximately $1.2M to accommodate an anticipated shortfall, but CSN will still lose about 60 vacant or frozen positions, and reduce about 760 student FTEs in discrete programs. We further expect that in FY 2011, state revenues will again fall short of projections, and we plan to set aside an operating reserve in case of a mid-year budget cut.
| Recommendations from the ad hoc committee on organizational structure will be submitted at the end of April. I’m told that the committee has had spirited discussions as well as opportunities for input from the college community. There are a range of recommendations, and some will be implemented over the summer months. Others, however, will require more review and input during early fall semester. I’ll be consulting with our employee groups about this process. |
Strategic Plan
CSN’s revised strategic plan, charting our course from the next seven years, was presented to the President’s Cabinet and streamed live on the web, prior to being posted on the CSN web site for final review. Over the summer, we’ll be preparing to submit the plan to the Board of Regents for its actions. The planning committee, chaired by Drs. Anneli Adams and Joan McGee, worked nearly a year on the update. If you have any input you’d like to share, please take a moment and submit it on the comment form on the web site.
Gala
The annual gala that our CSN Foundation and NV Energy sponsor will be held this weekend at the M Resort. The event is sold out—a singular tribute to community support for CSN. We will recognize many community leaders that evening, but the most important outcome is scholarships for CSN students. We are grateful for the support and the work of our staff in the Foundation for making these annual events such a success.
Questions from Faculty and Staff Members:
“What preparation can we do now for the 2011 Legislative session?”
Right now we’re preparing and watching state revenue figures. The state is down $3-3.5 billion for the next biennium, and it presents a historic challenge to keep the state viable. But this June, nearly every CSN employee can have an impact on the decisions that will be made in the next biennium as you participate in the political primary election:
- Support good candidates in your Assembly and Senate districts who are supportive of CSN, higher education and Nevada’s future.
- Vote in the primary election in June. Plan now to work for supportive candidates and to share your concerns about education and the future of the state.
| The renovation of science facilities at Cheyenne is drawing the attention of legislative and public works staffs who will be visiting the campus later this spring. This project is essential to our ability to provide state-of-the-art instruction in nearly every science discipline. We are anxious to move the project forward to completion. |
As spring semester winds down, I extend my best regards.
–Mike Richards