Tougher times ahead for Nevada college students

RENO -- While college students in Nevada enjoy comparatively low tuition costs compared with other states, a new study predicts tougher times ahead.

A report to be released next week by The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education estimates Nevada will have the second highest revenue deficit in the nation by 2011 if its current tax structure remains unchanged.

Conducted by the Rockefeller Institute of Government in New York City, the report looked at how much states were likely to fund higher education over the next eight years and how much revenue they would have based on their current tax structures.

Nevada's projected deficit of minus 9.2 percent ranks it just behind Tennessee, which is expected to have the country's highest deficit of minus 9.7 percent, a Reno newspaper reported Monday.

The average deficit for all 50 states is minus 3.4 percent.

"The shadow that hangs over all of this is if Nevada is not in healthy fiscal condition, it will have a hard time improving the adequate supply of funding for higher education," Patrick Callan, president of the nonprofit organization, told the newspaper.

More tuition increases are already in the pipeline for Nevada college students, with university undergraduates facing a 7.6 percent hike in 2003-2004 and a 7.1 percent increase the following year. Community college students will see somewhat lower tuition increases -- 3.8 percent next year and 3.7 percent the following year.

Many students said they feel the pinch of higher tuition costs, even when they're offset by a Millennium Scholarship, which provides up to $10,000 to Nevada students who graduate high school with at least a 3.0 grade-point average and attend an in-state college or university.

For students like Jeff Hustace, who graduated from high school in 1999, a year before the Millennium Scholarships became available, the tuition hikes are even harder.

"That's why I'm going here -- lower tuition costs," the 21-year-old University of Nevada, Reno student said. "But I'm still paying more than the Millennium Scholars.

"We're paying more and more and we're getting less," Hustace said. "There are classes that are so crowded we had to sit on the floor. It usually thins out after the first month of the semester, though, when students drop some classes."

Jane Nichols, chancellor of the University and Community College System of Nevada, said when state funding for higher education is cut, tuition costs in Nevada get passed on to students and their families.

UCCSN has raised tuition costs gradually at its universities and colleges over the past eight years, said Nichols.

"If we don't get adequate funding from the Legislature, the burden always falls back on the students because we have nowhere else to go," she said. "Many universities across the country are passing on the costs to their students."

In a report released last week, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education ranked Nevada among the five states in the nation that had the lowest tuition increases for 2002-03. Nevada's tuition costs rose by 3 percent, compared to the national average of 10 percent.

Callan said it's not what other states are charging but the income families in Nevada earn that should be taken into account.

"In determining the affordability of going to college in a state, you should look at the how much of a family's income it takes to afford college," he said.

"As in all Western states, Nevada has to work harder on providing need-based student financial aid," he said. "Nevada has the Millennium Scholarships that reach all students, but as tuition goes up, you have to focus more on making sure low-income groups can afford to go to college and aren't squeezed out because of lack of money."