NEVADA

Richard Jarvis, Chancellor, University and Community College System of Nevada

The Challenges

We have many plans and much by way of potential. Nevada is a state of many extremes in looking at the challenges of access and growth.

• We lead the nation in terms of the projected growth rate for high school graduates; we anticipate a 77 percent increase in the number of high school graduates over the next decade.

• Into the next biennium, we project a 5 percent per year growth rate that will vary substantially between the universities and the community colleges. Universities will grow at a rate of 3 to 3.5 percent while the two-year colleges will grow at a rate of up to 10 percent.

• Young people do not need to go to postsecondary education in Nevada to get a job. They enter a state with the lowest proportion of associate and baccalaureate degrees of any state in the country. They enter a state which has full employment. They enter a state which has much availability of high cash flow jobs for young people. They enter a university and community college system that has the highest rate of part-time students and the lowest participation rate (Figure 3).

• We have remained fairly well supported by the state legislature. In the prosperous 1980s we received about 21 percent of the state general fund appropriations; that dropped to 17 percent in the early 90s, but is up again to almost 19 percent.

Some Strategies

In addition to the scheduling and preparation initiatives that other states are talking about, Nevada is emphasizing two different strategies:

Joint work with the high schools.  It is critically important to partner more effectively with the latter years of high school to encourage students to participate in dual credit programs, to address the remedial problem in the high school where we can, and to encourage students to take courses which we can accredit. We have legislative support to direct the growth in our distance education program to collaboration with K-12; all of our institutions are working to deliver instruction to the high school via distance technology. But many of our students are simply not aware of the opportunities for postsecondary education in Nevada institutions. Price sensitivity is also a question for students accustomed to no charges in high school. In spring 1997, we will be experimenting by offering three-credit courses delivered electronically to high schools at a flat fee of $25 per course.

Joint facility use.  The University of Nevada-Reno is leading a collaborative endeavor for a new campus, a multi-institutional venture involving the university and the two local community colleges planning a joint facility from the ground up. A single facility with different kinds of institutions and programmatic offerings will demonstrate to the public in a very physical and tangible form that seamless transition and articulation we talk a lot about. We are looking for planning money to develop that facility by the beginning of the next century.

More immediately, we are also proposing a series of technology centers developed jointly between our colleges and high schools. Our model is to put a high technology center right on a high school campus, featuring a large open lab with 150 computer workstations, 6-8 computerized classrooms, and 8-12 general classrooms–all built and equipped for about $5 million. During the morning hours, the high school would use about 80 percent of the facility; then from 1:00 p.m. to midnight and beyond, the college takes over the building plus the high school's general purpose classrooms and science labs. This will save us building new community college campuses and enable us to build out our present campus with an emphasis on facilities for vocational technology programs. We are getting very positive reactions from high schools. This is also a way of getting a higher level of technology than either of us would be able to afford individually. Joint facility use sends a very serious message to our population and to our legislators that we are doing business differently. We are not trying to compete with K-12–we are trying to collaborate and use facilities more effectively.