The needs of the institution and students must be met before administration is unnecessarily expanded or given raises. The administration's funding choices are punishing students financially and academically.

Schools on the outside looking in have struggled to kickstart average-to-moribund programs, as even stalwart programs have struggled to keep pace with the transfer portal. In this new world — where will Nevada’s programs fall?

Multiple interviews with administrators and faculty involved with discussions suggest regents will be presented with a raft of options to help stem the budget bleeding — including a potential increase in student fees coupled with yet more institutional cuts. 

The schools plan to use the funds to hire additional faculty, but officials cautioned that key factors of the nursing shortage — such as faculty pay and burnout — remain unaddressed.

Tuesday’s vote also authorized the start of a search for a new permanent chancellor — the top administrator for the state’s higher education system — to replace Charlton, but only after regents meet again to outline precisely what qualifications they will prioritize and how the search will be conducted. 

The proposal could lower the amount of money that will need to be funded by institutions and potentially averting — at least in part — a crisis higher education officials have warned could necessitate higher student fees or risk budget cuts.

Amid a now-highly partisan split over new state employee compensation packages, the state’s higher education institutions have raised concerns that the size of the increase — coupled with the way the state funds those increases — may force colleges and universities to make budget cuts, even under the new budgetary windfall.

The move ends weeks of unexpected legislative whiplash over the bonus bill, driven by bicameral confusion over competing budget math and complicated calculations over how much different employee groups would cost to include.

On paper, Lombardo’s proposed budget would give the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) its largest single budget boost since before the pandemic. But the budget stopped short of boosting funding beyond 2019 levels.

NSHE Chief Financial Officer Andrew Clinger told the Board of Regents the moves were not in direct violation of state law, but rather created a potential clash with “legislative intent.” 

The Board of Regents is set to vote on the appointment of former State Superintendent Dale Erquiaga as acting chancellor next week, according to an agenda posted online Wednesday. 

With just nine weeks left before the end of the fiscal year, Officer in Charge Crystal Abba told regents that there was “absolutely no way” to balance the budget before the end of the fiscal year in June. 

One year after taking the Nevada System of Higher Education’s top job, Chancellor Melody Rose says that “we have to remember that we are still not in normal circumstances.” 

Administrators, officials and lobbyists in the orbit of Nevada’s higher education system shared a common refrain coming out of this year’s legislative session: It could have been worse.

While AB213 does not include a fiscal note, bill sponsor Assemblyman Edgar Flores (D-Las Vegas) and Andrew Clinger, chief financial officer for the Nevada System of Higher Education, clarified that in order to create an alternative form and process for undocumented students to apply for the grant, the Nevada System of Higher Education will draw up to 5 percent of the Silver State Opportunity Grant program funds, which total $5 million a year allocated from the state general fund.

With just two weeks to go before the end of the 2021 legislative session, state lawmakers boosted the Nevada System of Higher Education’s (NSHE) budget with the allocation of more than $93 million in federal COVID relief dollars aimed at lifting a system-wide hiring freeze.

Nearly $200 million in estimated federal aid will flow to fiscally beleaguered institutions and struggling students in the coming weeks as part of the massive $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, pending final guidelines on spending restrictions expected later this month from the Department of Education.

The money spent by Nevada colleges and universities on contract buyouts and settlements ballooned to more than $1.1 million last year, up from roughly $713,000 in 2019 or an increase of more than 54 percent, according to a report presented Thursday during the Board of Regents quarterly meeting.

Even as hopes remain high that new federal coronavirus relief could buoy state coffers, concerns over expected 12 percent cuts came to the fore Wednesday as members of the joint budget subcommittee on K-12 and higher education met for an initial overview of higher education funding.

In a sometimes-heated meeting that later triggered a social media storm, the Board of Regents voted 10-3 Friday to approve a controversial change to Title IX rules governing the adjudication of sexual assault and harassment cases on college campuses.