UNR Senate program review discussion

I'm still not able to comment publicly on the UNLV program review process other than to say the Committee is consulting very broadly and consulting a very large amount of information. But in the meantime, there is public news about the UNR process, on which their Faculty Senate debated yesterday.

A quick summary of their process is that to reach their target of $11m in cuts, the UNR Provost proposed $8.4m in cuts from academic programs and the faculty of effected departments and colleges made counter-proposals for almost equivalent savings with fewer program eliminations and lay-offs.

The Senate yesterday voted to support some of the alternative recommendations -- including a proposal to save the Foreign Languages department. Moreover there were significant objections raised to the process, which one member of the UNR Senate called "an end run around tenure".

Faculty from the College of Agriculture objected that the proposal for vertical cuts in their college "targeted specific faculty members, a violation of the Academic Curricular Review process."

The next step will be consideration by the UNR president and provost and recommendations to the Board of Regents for their June meeting. According to the RGJ, President Glick will have to make his recommendations to the Board by May 14.

UNLV's budget cut plan will be heard at the same BOR meeting in June. Once the PRC completes its report and it is reviewed by the UNLV Senate and the Academic Council, it will go to President Smatresk to make his final decisions and recommendations to the Board.