UNLV President Neal Smatresk told a somber Faculty Senate on Tuesday that the administration was planning a kind of bankruptcy to deal with its budget crunch.
Under the “financial exigency” plan, tenured professors could be fired and whole departments and programs more easily closed down.
Earlier this month, the Board of Regents said it would be premature to consider such a move until the Legislature approved a final budget by June.
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“We would have to declare financial exigency,” Smatresk said. He added, “I believe the proposed cuts could materialize.”He and other officials would spend the next few weeks developing cutback plans with deans and faculty groups.
“It’s very clear our state is approaching a state of fiscal collapse” when it comes to education, Smatresk said.
The Las Vegas Sun has the story.
If we are spending without funds, or if our funds dry up, we are not going to be able to continue. The question then becomes who can and should continue.
How would you make these decisions? By most majors? By most classes taught for the entire university? By least cost to the college? If the latter, then maybe English shouldn’t lobby so hard for new computer labs.
It’s an interesting issue and not just an “academic” one. My aunt was laid off when her college dissolved her entire program.