The board that oversees Nevada public colleges and universities is voting Friday on whether to raise student tuition and fees over the next three years to make up a $46.5 million annual shortfall primarily attributed to “long-overdue” faculty pay raises.

During a meeting at UNLV, the Board of Regents will consider whether to raise the cost per credit and tuition for students outside Nevada by 9 percent for lower-division courses (introductory courses numbered 100-299) at two-year colleges, and 12 percent at four-year universities or upper-division courses numbered 300 or higher gradually over the next three years. 

It comes about two years after the board already approved a separate 5 percent increase in undergraduate and graduate registration fees and nonresident tuition to help fund the faculty pay raises. The registration fee and non-resident tuition increases were at the time considered to be the largest one-year increase since 2012. 

Matt McNair, chancellor for the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), said in a Wednesday statement to The Nevada Independent that institutions have already reduced operations and slowed down on hiring to cut back on expenses, but further cuts could jeopardize the quality of Nevada’s higher education. 

“Under Nevada’s funding model, we still need to address the ongoing shortfall,” he said in the statement. “A measured, gradual tuition adjustment is the only realistic way to do that while maintaining academic quality, preserving essential student services, and still keeping Nevada’s public colleges and universities among the most affordable in the country.” 

According to an NSHE report, the fee increase is expected to eventually cost full-time Nevada students at UNR and UNLV approximately $1,200 per year, $900 per year for students at Nevada State University and approximately $400 per year for lower-division students at the College of Southern Nevada, Great Basin College, Truckee Meadows Community College and Western Nevada College. 

Kelechi Odunze, UNLV’s undergraduate student body president, said his team has received many messages from students who are opposed to the increase. 

“They feel like a lot of students are going to be priced out of education,” he said. 

Why there’s a shortfall

In 2023, the Legislature passed the state worker pay bill (AB522) that budgeted a historically large 12 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the 2024 fiscal year, and 11 percent for the 2025 fiscal year for most state workers, including NSHE’s classified staff.

Historically, the state government funds 80 percent of cost of living adjustments for all state agencies, often because a mix of existing vacancies and agency reserves made full funding unnecessary. But beginning in 2019, the state began funding just 64 percent of those cost of living adjustments at NSHE. The decrease was initially billed as a math error, but in 2021, the Legislature passed a new budget policy bill (AB493) that has maintained state funding for COLAs for NSHE employees around that level.

AB522 gave the Board of Regents discretion on pay increases for professional staff — a group that includes traditional teaching faculty — as long as their cost of living adjustments didn’t exceed the two thresholds set in the bill. 

But after higher education leaders including former UNLV President Keith Whitfield signaled support for a 12 percent COLA, arguing it was the right thing to do, the board went ahead and approved it at a June 2023 meeting, despite knowing it might come with some budget cuts or a later student fee increase to cover the cost. 

In December 2023, the board approved an 11 percent COLA for faculty for fiscal year 2025, matching the pay bumps that classified employees received. 

Before the COLAs, faculty pay had stayed largely stagnant since the 2008 recession.

The board and NSHE have previously taken other cost-saving measures to afford the increase in pay, such as suspending a 1 percent merit pay program through the 2025 fiscal year for university faculty and staff. 

During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers provided $57.5 million in one-time funding over the next two years (AB568) to partially alleviate the shortfall. 

But lawmakers recommended NSHE “seek additional sources of revenue to ensure that the System is able to pay its operational and instructional expenses.” 

In 2019, the Board of Regents instituted the Predictable Pricing Policy, which automatically raises student registration fees and tuition with inflation annually as measured by the Higher Education Price Index.

Under the current schedule, registration fees at UNLV and UNR were expected to increase from $288 per credit to $303.50 next school year. But with the proposed increase, they would now go up to $312.75 per credit next school year and eventually reach $367.25 per credit by the 2028-29 school year. 

Higher education community reacts

In a Wednesday opinion piece submitted to The Nevada Independent, NSHE leadership said even after the increases, Nevada’s public colleges and universities will still remain affordable compared to their peers in the Western region. 

According to the NSHE report, tuition and fees at four-year colleges for Nevada undergraduate and graduate students will still be below average compared with other peer institutions in the Western region, but students in lower-division courses at two-year colleges will be slightly above the average. But Nevada rates will rank eighth out of 15 among Western states for affordability. 

Sondra Cosgrove, a CSN professor, said she doesn’t think the proposed increase is equitable for community colleges, which tend to cater to lower-income students. 

She criticizes Democrats, who control the Legislature, for focusing on policies such as the failed attempt to expand film tax credits and not doing more to support the working class, and the Legislature overall for not doing more to fully fund NSHE. 

“If you’re trying to have fewer poor people in the state … why would you put a burden on people who are at community college?” she asked. 

Democratic legislative leaders did not provide a response to The Nevada Independent’s request for comment on the matter. 

Odunze, the UNLV student leader, said that while he doesn’t necessarily support the tuition increase, he is supportive of the pay increases to retain faculty. 

“I don’t think it’s fair to put on the backs of students, but it's also not the professors’ fault,” he said. “I think it comes back to the state and our legislators and them not always prioritizing education and higher education.” 

A study by Applied Analysis commissioned by NSHE found that in 2024, Nevada’s state appropriations for higher education per full-time equivalent student ranked second to last compared to its Western peers. 

Alfred Vivar Muñoz, a UNLV senior studying political science, said the scholarships and financial aid he received were no longer enough to fully cover his courseload of six classes after the 2024 tuition increase. As a result, he had to take fewer classes. If this new increase is approved, he anticipates his graduation might be delayed. 

“Frankly, I’m going to basically stay for a couple more semesters at UNLV, so I’ll be, I hate to say it … a super senior,” he said. 

Odunze said outside of the state’s Millennium Scholarship — an award that doesn’t go nearly as far as it used to to cover college costs — he works part time and has taken out student loans to pay for college. Despite the increase, he said he thinks UNLV will be an affordable option for him. 

“I feel like the education I’m getting here is valuable and is worth what I’m paying,” he said.