Smatresk to Regents: When you lose faculty, you lose your core (BOR liveblog)

From 2007 to present, loss of $50m. Have lost top faculty, reduced staff, cut administrative structures.

We are similar in public view to the UNLV of 2007 but we are taking on water...We have faculty who question the commitment of the state of NV to higher education. ...We are now experiencing severe difficulty recruiting faculty. When you lose your faculty base, you lose the core. That causes deep structural damage. The cuts we've taken have already put us in that place. We're now asked to repeat the same degree of cuts over a one year period...

To date, UNLV has eliminated over 500 positions of whom 107 were real people in real employment budget lines that are gone.

"We are remarkably efficient. We are producing what this city needs on greatly reduced funding....We are delivering the workforce [NV] needs. But they are getting hired in California."

10% tuition increase. After 15% held back for financial aid, we'll still have to cut the equivalent of two or three of our colleges (over $30m). That will cost us about 6000 students. So that raising tuition does not fill the budget gap.

Non-residential (ie "out of state") tuition is already at or above regional competitors. Further increase in tuition will yield progressive declines in enrollment. For residential (ie "in state") students, higher tuition will reduce, not increase, our % of the state population with college degree -- already ranked 46th in nation.

"Good faculty do not know if this should be their home anymore."