LETTER: Nevada State College or University?
The idea of a Nevada State University is fetching, but somewhat foolish. While touted as no more expensive than the current Nevada State College, the truth of the matter is that a university is far more expensive than a college.
The expense comes in two forms. First, the accreditation of a university requires a significant publication rate by the faculty. To obtain this, faculty members need release time from teaching. To obtain such release time means that added teaching staff is required. Not only are added teachers needed, but the publishing faculty also add to the educational cost in terms of the salary raises and promotions that go along with publication.
The expense of a university goes beyond the dollar cost. Moving from college to university status signals a move from serving students to serving faculty. The students end up paying for a high level of publishing faculty but do not receive the full educational benefits of such status — the undergraduate classes become taught by graduate students and part-time faculty.
There is a serious need for maintaining a rigorous university system with an emphasis on research and dissemination of information. But there is also a serious question of just how much public funding should go to maintaining a university system.
Nevada already has two universities and is funding a lot of duplicate graduate education. Nevada might better serve its students by more fairly distributing its educational funding to cover two-year community colleges, four-year colleges and university level educational centers.
As things stand, Nevada’s community colleges strive to become four-year institutions, and Nevada’s four-year colleges strive to become universities. All the striving and competition for funding and status leads to an increasingly expensive educational network. Nevada would do better to pay equal attention to all levels of higher education.
