Higher education in the Silver State is funded by the taxpayers and overseen by the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), which operates under a code established by the Board of Regents Handbook. This document states that “Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual member of the faculty or the institution.”

Hold that thought.

Many students entering college in Nevada are not ready for college level courses, either because they were poorly prepared in high school, or because they are returning to school after years of absence and need to refresh basic skills. In the past, such students would take a placement test that would direct the deficient to remedial courses in math and English. Some students had to spend three or more semesters in remedial math before attaining a college level grasp of the subject and being permitted to enroll in a regular college level math course. This was a costly and inefficient system, and many students quit before ever reaching the college level course. 

In an attempt to fix this remedial problem, the Board of Regents in 2019 changed its handbook to require incoming students to be placed directly into college level math and English, regardless of their skill level. NSHE now requires students with deficiencies to enroll in a simultaneous 2-3 credit “co-requisite course” that tries to teach the necessary skills to succeed in a college level math course, together with teaching the college level course itself. The idea is that students will either “sink or swim” (quickly find out if they are “college material”) rather than having to spend perhaps three-plus semesters in remedial courses.

The idea and the intention with the new co-requisite remedial system may be good. There’s nothing based on merits that would disqualify the co-requisite model of remediation. However, it requires a lot of hard work and discipline, not only by students, but also by NSHE and its individual institutions — and the question is whether our institutions can be trusted to have this discipline. 

Enter a new funding formula in 2018, one NSHE adjusted to base funding for its institutions primarily on course completion. If you think the new formula sounds like an invitation to NSHE institutions to pass students who shouldn’t pass, you hit the nail on the head. The formula encourages institutions to pass more students in order to get more funding, and schools are predictably doing just that. Here at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC), math standards have been lowered so more deficient students can pass more courses — and so the college can maintain class completion rates and get paid. 

The dilemma for TMCC and other NSHE institutions, of course, is that if they don’t dumb down the curriculum, the regents' mandate to place all enrolling students into college level courses will result in a dramatic drop in course completion and hence in college funding. So our colleges and universities are doing it, even though that was not the regents’ intent.

An example of these lowered standards at TMCC is the removal of a working knowledge of algebra as a requirement for graduation. To graduate high school, Nevada students must pass Algebra 1 and 2, and until recently, enrolling TMCC students either had to show mastery of these subjects or take remedial math to address deficiencies. That is no longer the case. It is now possible for a student to graduate with a degree from TMCC with little or no knowledge of algebra.

Should we now expect the removal of any algebra requirement to graduate high school? This would be detrimental to students and to the state, because algebra gives graduates critical thinking and problem solving skills students can’t get in any other way. These skills are more needed in today's high-tech world than ever before. Algebra skills should be sharpened in college, not neglected, so students have more opportunities with area employers, especially high-tech employers. 

Additionally, lower academic standards lower the value of a college degree or certificate program. Doing so to maintain funding is a violation of the public trust, and amounts to fraud. It is also a violation of the code we referenced at the top of this piece, saying each college in the state shall “work for the common good and not to further the interest of the institution.” 

More generally, the TMCC administration’s meddling in course curricula is a violation of academic freedom. It interferes with academic integrity, and the lowering of standards in math will reverberate across the entire public education system, from K-12 through college. It will lower the value, but not the price, of TMCC degrees and certificates. Curricular levels and academic standards should exclusively be the purview of academic departments. 

At TMCC, under President Karin Hilgersom, the atmosphere is not one that encourages academic discourse. Instead, we have an atmosphere of fear, and for this reason TMCC has recently lost many faculty. The math department alone has lost seven faculty members since 2020, more than one-third of its faculty, and the nursing faculty has lost more than half of its members. This speaks volumes about the work environment. At TMCC, if faculty speak up, they can expect to get disciplined — just for standing by the academic decisions they think are the best. This is an especially egregious violation of academic freedom.

What’s more, the methods used by the TMCC administration to discipline faculty who speak up are extreme, including demotion, termination proceedings against tenured faculty, sending armed campus police to faculty homes late at night, harassment in the form of the denial of “earned” retirement benefits, exclusion from leadership positions and decision making bodies, among others.

One of us spoke up about the funding formula fraud TMCC is committing by lowering standards in math, and has since had to endure termination hearings ordered by President Hilgersom. One of us was improperly removed by Hilgersom as a department chair — after being elected by a unanimous vote. And even after a four-year long court battle and ultimate legal victory, TMCC delayed paying court-ordered restitution, but has had the time and money to send university police to disturb an innocent family in their home late at night.

It is not the business of TMCC’s deans to tell departments to lower standards in courses. President Hilgersom was made aware of this problem and took no action. As the officer chiefly responsible at TMCC, she has abdicated her duties. NSHE is ultimately responsible for the integrity of higher education in Nevada, and should take steps to see that the regents’ original intention regarding co-requisite learning is upheld without the lowering of standards.

This is necessary for the reasons already stated, and also because TMCC administration is supposed to inform the Faculty Senate about new policies or changes to policies, so the policies can be vetted, but even that is not consistently happening. At TMCC, under President Hilgersom, the cogs of shared governance and academic freedom for faculty are seriously broken. TMCC has become an autocratic, lawless institution where the president makes decisions on her own, and anyone who dissents is at risk of being disciplined, demoted, or even terminated from employment. 

TMCC administrators even weaponize student complaints against faculty, regardless of their merit, and also encourage frivolous complaints by other TMCC employees, pursuing them vigorously and at great cost to the taxpayers even when there is no evidence to support them. At the same time, serious complaints against TMCC administrators are ignored, dismissed, and trivialized by the very people whose job is to uphold the rules. Some administrators have even ruled on grievances against themselves. These are school officials whose duty is to prevent abuse. Instead, they cover it up and bring false charges against dissenting employees. This is an absolute inversion of fairness and justice.

All of these actions were well documented in a letter to the regents from all the Nevada Faculty Alliance chapter leaders in 2020. The letter stated that “the president purposefully uses bullying, threats, divisiveness and retribution as tactics to create a climate of fear and an ‘us versus them’ atmosphere among the TMCC faculty and staff. The Nevada Faculty Alliance (NFA) State Board is disturbed by verbal abuse and threats made against TMCC’s NFA officers and members by the president. This targeting behavior is a violation of the TMCC collective bargaining agreement and is prohibited under federal labor law. President Hilgersom’s behavior and philosophy have created fear, apathy, and low morale among a significant number of employees at TMCC.” 

The letter also stated that “The TMCC Human Resource office has been relegated to a political arm of the president to obfuscate, mount phony complaints against targeted faculty, and shelter aberrant presidential behavior. The NSHE system attorney assigned to TMCC seems to have become the personal attorney of the president to facilitate the same kind of harassment or cover up.” 

After receiving the letter, the regents still chose to renew President Hilgersom’s contract.

Sadly, our educational institutions in Nevada seem now to have become more like corporations which want to optimize their profit rather than provide quality academics, all while funded by taxpayers — and with their own armed police force to enforce their will on dissenters. As General James Mattis said in his autobiography, institutions get the kind of behaviors they reward. It is vital that the Nevada education system and its individual institutions reward honesty, integrity, and effective teaching rather than lowered standards and a degree mill approach to curriculum.

College faculty in this state and country are rapidly losing academic freedom because the financial bottom line at colleges has become more important than the quality of education.

NSHE is already paying for an independent investigation into explosive allegations of abuse, discrimination, and harassment at its highest levels of leadership. It should expand that investigation to look at abuse and meddling by college administrations at all levels of NSHE. Until it does, we and the taxpayers of this state will wonder why the dozens of NSHE employees who have made serious allegations against deans, vice presidents, and presidents are suffering considerable injustice. They deserve a fair hearing. 

What’s at stake is the future of higher education in Nevada and America, and thus the future of the United States itself.

Thomas Cardoza is a professor in his 19th year in the Humanities Department at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno. He was Teacher of the Year at TMCC in 2007 and has served as Humanities Department chair, Foreign Language coordinator, Honors Program Coordinator, Learning Communities Coordinator, and Faculty Senator. He earned a Ph.D. with Distinction in History from the University of California and holds a master’s degree in History from Purdue University.

Lars Jensen is a professor in his 26th year in the Math Department at Truckee Meadows Community College. There, he taught the first online course, ran the first online course delivery system, and developed the physics labs and the Engineering Physics program. Jensen holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Copenhagen.