EDITORIAL: Go to the town hall. Stand up for UNLV.

January 14, 2010 by The Rebel Yell 

As if demeaning the state’s K-12 education system with a ridiculous plan last week wasn’t enough, Governor Jim Gibbons has found yet another way to stick it to higher education.

In our previous editorial, we expressed our distaste of Gibbons’ backwards plan for K-12, which throws aside superfluous factors like “facts” and “data” in an attempt to pander to what few allies he has left in Carson City while generally making a farce of the state’s education system and handily dismissing the future of our children.

Impressive.

Now Gibbons is asking that the UNLV prepare for an additional 8 percent budget cut, effective March 2010.

Although Gibbons claims that suggestions like these are to close the state’s budget deficit, this is the same governor who has threatened to sue the legislature over plans to specifically omit his education reform ideas in any new bill proposals.

He has also threatened to sue the federal government over the health care bill – at taxpayer expense, “whatever the cost is.”

If cutting the Nevada System of Higher Education’s budget doesn’t fix the state budget, at least it will help fund Gibbon’s personal crusades – instead of programs that are essential to this state.

With enrollment up four percent statewide and class sections as large as ever, this is absolutely not the time to cut funding at Nevada System of Higher Education institutions. Gibbons must look elsewhere, unless he is truly hell-bent on jeopardizing the state’s future.

The situation right now looks much like it did early last year. The university is hosting a town hall meeting today at 3:30 p.m. to discuss this latest round of cuts Gibbons has proposed.

This is precisely why it is crucial that, like last year, we make our voices heard and rally to defend the future of higher education in Nevada.

It started to work for us back then. Estimates like budget cuts as high as 25 percent and tuition hikes as high as 50 percent were thrown around in the 2008-09 academic year, but the final cut to NSHE came out to 12.5 percent – an amount which would have certainly been much higher if we did not turn out to have our voices heard.

If the number percent wasn’t enough of a cut for Gibbons, we must let him (and the Legislature) know that 12.5 was already too much.

It is essential for us, as supporters of higher education, to be as active as possible in preserving it in this state. Students from all campuses came together last year to rally against potentially catastrophic cuts and tuition hikes and we can do it again.

Go to the town hall meeting(s) and speak out. Talk to your representatives in student government and express your concerns.

At Monday’s CSUN meeting, Nevada Student Affairs director David Rapoport said that legislators must know how cuts would affect UNLV students – let them know. Get your friends, colleagues and family together to write the legislature.

This will always be a cause worthy of reminders. If we want to save education in Nevada, we must top the level of involvement and the turnout we saw at last year’s budget cut rallies.

Students must continue the fight they started last year to defend this institution, if they want to ensure it continues to exist next year.

The battle starts at today’s town hall – but the war doesn’t end until we’ve ensured that higher education is given the respect it deserves by this state’s elected representatives.