NFA News

Statement of the State Board of the Nevada Faculty Alliance on SJR7*

To the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections

For the SJR7* Hearing on March 21, 2023

The Nevada Faculty Alliance (NFA) is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors, the premier national organization advocating for academic freedom, shared governance, and faculty rights in higher education.

The NFA is neutral on SJR7*, the constitutional amendment to remove the Board of Regents and its election from the Nevada Constitution.  We have members on both sides, although recent history has swayed more of our members toward support.

We would like to provide some background information.

The NFA is very concerned about academic freedom and the potential for political and partisan interference in curriculum and academic standards. In the past two years especially, academic freedom has been under unprecedented attack by state legislatures and governors around the country.

Question 1, narrowly defeated in 2020, had a clause regarding academic freedom, but as written it would actually have endangered academic freedom. SJR7* is silent on academic freedom. In the 2021 legislative session, we offered an amendment to protect academic freedom, but it gained no traction.  The constitutional independence of a governing board provides some protection for academic freedom; however, today we see both elected and appointed boards becoming politicized and they do not necessarily protect the principles we value.

We all have a vital interest in having a fully functioning Board of Regents serving students and Nevada. The Nevada System of Higher Education more often asserts its constitutional authority over personnel issues and its own power structure than in defense of academic freedom or educational policy.  Our hope is that we can protect our principles in the future through collective bargaining agreements and contract law.

We are neutral but we reserve the right to change to support as we hear more from our members. We remain willing to work with you to add true protection of academic freedom to the constitution.

Thank you.

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The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the independent statewide association of professional employees of the colleges and universities of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The NFA is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors, which advocates for academic freedom, shared governance, and faculty rights, and the American Federation of Teachers/AFL-CIO, representing over 300,000 higher education professionals nationwide. The NFA works to empower our members to be wholly engaged in our mission to help students succeed.

Contact: Kent Ervin, NFA State President, kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org, 775-453-6837

Today was a great hearing for AB224, our bill to secure collective bargaining rights for NSHE professionals!  Thanks so much to our members who testified or submitted written comments, to the AAUP and AFT for providing great expert testimony, and to our many labor partners including the Nevada AFL-CIO who lined up in support!

AAUP statement in support

AFT legal analysis of the bill

NFA fact sheet

The support was overwhelming and the bill was very well received.  Just one hiccup--more than six months after we provided NSHE with the bill language and after multiple outreach attempts to them with no response, late yesterday NSHE submitted a claim that the bill is unconstitutional. That position was, however, eviscerated at the hearing by Kevin Powers, a senior attorney for the Legislative Counsel Bureau.  Listen to the hearing here. Hearing starts at 9:52:30, Kevin Powers at 10:08:58.

We now expect the bill to move forward through the legislative process.

The Nevada Faculty Alliance conducted confidential surveys of academic and non-managerial administrative faculty at the seven NSHE colleges and universities between November 2022 and February 2023. 

The detailed aggregate and institutional results are linked below:

• Summary Results - All Institutions and Comparisons
• College of Southern Nevada
• Great Basin College
• Nevada State College
• Truckee Meadows Community College
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• University of Nevada, Reno
• Western Nevada College

Key highlights from the surveys include the following:

• Faculty are most concerned about low salaries, with 64% of respondents reporting moderate or strong dissatisfaction with their overall compensation and 71% feeling that their compensation compares unfavorably with others in their field at their stage of career.

• About half of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with health care benefits. After improving compensation and lowering PEBP premiums, their highest priority is the restoration of PEBP benefits including Long-Term Disability Insurance.

• A strong majority of respondents (79%) are satisfied with retirement benefits, the one bright spot in overall compensation.

• Faculty respondents generally report being comfortable with the climate within their own departments or programs (72% overall), suggesting good working relationships with close colleagues. However, there is variability across the seven institutions in how comfortable faculty are with their overall campus climate--67% overall are moderately or strongly comfortable with their campus climate but at two institutions about half of the faculty members report being moderately or strongly uncomfortable.

• Faculty members who report they are more comfortable with the campus climate tend to be at institutions whose administrators are perceived to embrace the principles of shared governance and protect academic freedom.  Conversely, institutions rated low in campus climates are correlated with dissatisfaction in those areas.

• Over half of the faculty respondents have seriously considered leaving their institution in the past two years, with low salaries being the most common reason followed by limited advancement opportunities. Contributing reasons include a lack of a sense of belonging, the high cost of living and housing, and a lack of institutional support. Faculty at institutions that rate low on campus climate overall list the climate and tensions with administrators among reasons to consider leaving.

• Finally, at the four institutions without faculty collective bargaining units (GBC, NSC, UNLV & UNR), a supermajority of 83% of respondents moderately or strongly support formation of a bargaining unit to negotiate for improved compensation, benefits, and working conditions.

The survey responses will inform our advocacy efforts at the legislature for higher COLAs, for full restoration of benefits, and for our bill to secure collective bargaining rights in state law.

Our short faculty survey is strongly indicative of differences in campus climate among the seven institutions, but does not eliminate the need for comprehensive campus climate studies and 360° evaluations of administrators, which should be conducted by external consultants as part of the periodic presidential reviews by the Regents. Such studies could delve into the specific groups of faculty who feel the campus climate is unwelcoming or uncomfortable and why.

We would like to thank everyone who responded to the survey and provided written comments. Your input is incredibly valuable to us, and we have read and considered all of the comments.  As always, we remain committed to working in solidarity with members of our faculty alliance to ensure that our voices are heard and our needs are met.

Assembly Bill 224 will secure collective bargaining rights for NSHE professional employees in state law.  AB 224 was introduced on February 23 with a bipartisan group of thirty cosponsors!

AB224 Collective Bargaining Bill Summary 

AB224 on NELIS (Legislative Bill Tracking Site)

To help support AB224 and other NFA legislative priorities, please sign up for the NFA Legislative Action Team.

Public Comment, Joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways & Means Committees, 2/21/2023

by Kent Ervin, State President, Nevada Faculty Alliance

Re: Nevada System of Higher Education Budget

The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the independent statewide association of professional employees at NSHE. Along with our national partners, the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, we work to advance higher education for the common good.

Higher education fosters a responsible citizenry, promotes upward social and economic mobility, and trains the workforce for Nevada’s economic advancement. Our public colleges and universities are the talent pathway for workforce development. That includes not only career and technical training for trades, but also the professional workforce education for Nevada’s future—teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, scientists, accountants, managers, policy-makers, journalists, writers, and so forth.

There has been a long-term trend, both nationally and in Nevada, of lower state support for public higher education and higher student fees and tuition.  Between FY2007 and FY2022 in Nevada, state-appropriated funding per student FTE (full-time-equivalent) declined by 34% after inflation (including the federal ARPA funds used to restore positions in FY2022 ).  During the same period, resident student fees per student FTE increased 65% above inflation. (Please see the chart of state and student revenues per student FTE on page 2.)  The contribution to the total cost from the state per student has declined from about two-thirds to one-half.

The Governor’s recommended budget brings NSHE’s state-appropriated base budget back to FY2019 levels, which bakes in those long-term declines.  It restores the 12% cuts to operating budgets in the current biennium. The additional funding for graduate teaching assistantships is important—their current stipends are below subsistence levels.  We also appreciate the one-time funding to cover pandemic-related enrollment declines at CSN, GBC, and TMCC.  However, we have to point out that the operating budget does not address the high inflation over the past two years, so we will still be stretching to do more with less. 

We are encouraged that the Governor has proposed a study of the funding formula. With a $5M price tag, the study should not only study the costs of providing courses, but also the support that today’s students need and the resources required to provide higher education for the common good and Nevada’s economic future.

Thank you.

On an inflation-adjusted basis, state-appropriated funding per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student fell by 34% from FY2007 to FY2022, while resident registration fees rose 65% above inflation. Revenues per student FTE from non-resident tuition and self-supported program fees were about flat over the same period after inflation.

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The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the statewide independent association of professional employees at the colleges and universities of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The NFA is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers/AFL-CIO, which represent over 300,000 higher education professionals in North America. The NFA advocates for higher education as a common good, academic freedom, and improving the working conditions of NSHE professional employees.

Contact: Kent Ervin, NFA State President, kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org, 775-453-6837

Public Comment, Joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways & Means Committees, 2/17/2023

by Kent Ervin, State President, Nevada Faculty Alliance

Re: Public Employees’ Benefits Program Budget

The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the independent statewide association of professional employees at Nevada’s public colleges and universities. We work to empower our members to be fully engaged in our mission to help students succeed.

To be fully engaged, state employees need robust health care benefits to keep healthy and productive The Public Employees’ Benefits Program is essential for recruiting and retaining state employees. While uncompetitive salaries are the most pressing concern of our members, benefits are next.

PEBP benefits were drastically cut after the Great Recession. We slowly clawed some of them back just to have benefits cut again during the pandemic. Now that the state’s economy and revenues are roaring back, the benefits should be fully restored to pre-pandemic FY2020 levels:

• Restore Long-Term Disability Insurance, which was completely eliminated.
• Restore basic Life Insurance, which was cut by 40%.
• Restore pre-pandemic deductibles, copays, and out-of-pocket maximums.
• Restore pre-pandemic employee premiums, which were raised by 50%.

We also support raising the Medicare retiree contributions to Health Reimbursement Accounts to cover Medigap insurance inflation, as proposed by AFSCME Retirees and RPEN.

Longer term, state funding of the employee health insurance plan has not kept up.  As shown in the chart on the next page, the total rate for the basic high-deductible plan for state employees (single-employee tier) has increased only 8% over the dozen years from FY2011 to FY2023, while average per-capita health care costs have risen 69%.  Only about 66% of the average cost of health care for an individual is now covered by the PEBP premium. Although PEPB has instituted some cost-saving efficiencies, largely the additional burden is falling as higher out-of-pocket medical and prescription expenses on the employees who are most vulnerable—employees who have chronic conditions and need treatment to remain productive on the job, employees who suffer a major health crisis in a year, and employees who become total disabled because of an injury or diagnoses but now have no income safety net after the elimination of Long-Term Disability Insurance.

Thank you.

Before 2014, the PEBP plan premium matched the average per capita cost of health care, but now it only covers about 66%.  State employees are paying higher out-of-pocket medical and prescription costs.

Source: PEBP annual rate tables, CMS National Health Expenditures Tables, AON 2023 Global Medical Trends Report.

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The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the statewide independent association of professional employees at the colleges and universities of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The NFA is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers/AFL-CIO, which represent over 300,000 higher education professionals in North America. The NFA advocates for higher education as a common good, academic freedom, and improving the working conditions of NSHE professional employees.

Contact: Kent Ervin, NFA State President, kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org, 775-453-6837

Public Comment, Joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways & Means Committees, 2/13/2023

by Kent Ervin, NFA State President

The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the independent statewide association of professional employees at Nevada’s public colleges and universities. We work to empower our members to be fully engaged in our mission to help students succeed.

All of our classified colleagues at NSHE and about 15% of faculty are members of PERS. Faculty on NSHE’s retirement plan alternative receive the same contribution amounts as PERS per statute. The retirement plan is essential for recruiting and retaining state employees.

Nevada PERS has one of the strongest investment programs in the country.  Using a disciplined approach with low-cost investments and a lean investment staff, PERS has exceeded its investment goals and market benchmarks over the long term.  

Nevada PERS’s unfunded liability percentage is about in the middle among the 50 states. In 2021, PERS’s actuaries took a deep dive into the assumptions and changed them to be more fiscally conservative. That was the responsible thing to do but it is the primary reason that the PERS contribution rate is going up next year.  This will put PERS on a firmer footing over the next decades.  But like getting a shorter-term mortgage and increasing monthly payments, it increases the pain now to pay off the debt faster. Fortunately, this increase is happening at a time when the state budget can absorb the increase.

With uncompetitive salaries and cuts to health care benefits, the retirement program is the one positive left for state employees, but the retirement contributions have become a further drag on state employee salaries.  The State should cover more of the PERS contribution for its employees, as do many of the local governmental employers. Thank you, Chair Monroe-Moreno, for asking for options.

Finally, we support PERS’s budget enhancement requests to keep the retirement system functioning well.

Summary of the Governor’s Recommended Budget for FY2024-FY2025

for NSHE Professional Employees

Nevada Faculty Alliance, 2/11/2023

The Governor’s budget is the starting point for legislative action. The Nevada Faculty Alliance is advocating for improvements in compensation and benefits for NSHE professionals and all state employees.

COMPENSATION

• Cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) of 8% on 7/1/2023 and 4% on 7/1/2024.
• “Retention bonuses” of $500 per quarter, 1/1/2023 through 6/30/2025.
• NSHE CFO Andrew Clinger confirmed that the COLAs and the retention bonuses include NSHE classified and professional employees (Board of Regents, 2/3/2023, audio at 1:04:01).
• Increased retirement plan contributions of 2% for the employee and 2% for the employer on 7/1/2023, offsetting the first-year COLA. For PERS members, pay is reduced by 2% with no change in retirement benefits. For employees on the NSHE retirement plan alternative, take-home pay is reduced by 2% but contributions into the 401a account are increased by 4% of salary.

BENEFITS

The Public Employee Benefits Program will largely have the same plan design as for FY2023, which represents a partial restoration of the drastic cuts to PEBP benefits during the pandemic. Major differences for the next biennium versus the pre-pandemic FY2020 plan include:

• Elimination of Long-Term Disability Insurance (leaving no safety net for faculty who have no Social Security Disability and no PERS early disability retirement).
• Reduction of the HSA contribution for the employee from $700 to $600 and elimination of the $200 per dependent HSA contribution (high-deductible plan).
• Reduction of basic life insurance by 40% from $25000 to $15000 for active employees.
• Increased co-pays, a new $100 deductible, and 20% co-insurance for some services for the HMO/EPO plans.
• An increase of the annual dental maximum from $1500 to $2000.
• Addition of a cancer concierge service (expected to produce cost savings).

The low-deductible plan added in FY2023 will be continued. Employee premium contributions are unknown until the March PEBP rate-setting meeting but are not expected to rise dramatically.

NSHE BUDGET

• Restores the 12% operating budget cuts from the last session due to the pandemic ($74M).
• Negative enrollment caseload reductions of $16M are offset by $14.2M in one-time funds to CSN, GBC, and TMCC for enrollment recovery and to UNR for Sierra Nevada University enrollment
• $9.2M enhancement to UNLV Medical School for class size increase.
• $20M budget enhancement for graduate assistant stipends at UNLV and UNR.
• $2M for added WSCH formula state support for summer school courses for teacher education.
• No major building capital projects are funded for NSHE. A total of $70M for deferred maintenance and infrastructure.
• For the seven formula-funded instructional budgets (CSN, GBC, NSC, TMCC, UNLV, UNR, & WNC), the state-appropriated funding resources will decline from pre-pandemic levels after considering inflation and increased retirement and benefits contributions.
• Further details are in the NSHE Budget Overview.

www.nevadafacultyalliance.org

Contact: Kent Ervin, kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org

Public Comment, Legislative Commission Budget Subcommittee, 1/27/2023

By Kent Ervin, State President, Nevada Faculty Alliance

The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the independent statewide association of professional employees at NSHE colleges and universities. This is our 40th anniversary year. Since 1983, we have been working to empower our members to be fully engaged in our mission to help student succeed.

We are encouraged by the Governor’s recommended budget for NSHE.  The restoration of the pandemic cuts to operating budgets is essential. The boost to graduate assistant stipends is essential for their progress toward degrees. The other enhancements are important. NFA strongly supports full funding of the Governor’s budget for NSHE, to provide for the workforce pipeline for Nevada including career and technical education but also professional teachers, nurses, engineers, scientists, doctors, dentists, accountants, managers, lawyers, public-health & hospitality workers, policy-makers, future faculty, and so on.

But GovRec does not fix the long-term sustainability of higher education for Nevada’s students. The funding per Weighted Student Credit Hour in the report just presented is 6% lower than in FY2020 after adjusting for inflation. That degradation of WSCH funding puts pressure on NSHE to raise student fees, which no one wants. Therefore, we also support the study of the funding formula to provide for sustainably for higher education as a common good.

State employment is in crisis with unprecedented vacancy rates. At NSHE, we can’t keep faculty and staff. The overall turnover rate is 14%/year. The woefully inadequate compensation for state employees including NSHE faculty and professional staff must be addressed.  The 8% + 4% Cost of Living Adjustment in GovRec is a good start. But comparisons with our peers indicate the COLA needs to be more than doubled just to bring salaries up to average. We must support our human capital. 

Thank you.

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The Nevada Faculty Alliance is the statewide independent association of professional employees at the colleges and universities of the Nevada System of Higher Education. The NFA is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers/AFL-CIO. The NFA/AAUP represents faculty collective bargaining units at the College of Southern Nevada, Truckee Meadows Community College, and Western Nevada College, with advocacy chapters at Great Basin College, Nevada State College, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the University of Nevada, Reno. The NFA advocates for higher education as a common good, academic freedom, and empowering our members to be fully engaged in our mission to help students succeed.

The Nevada Faculty Alliance thanks Governor Sisolak and the Interim Finance Committee for approving repayment of faculty and staff furlough salary cuts in Spring 2021, and has sent a letter of thanks to the NSHE System and NSHE Payroll Services at Business Center North for processing the repayments on an accelerated schedule to get the checks out today (Dec. 23), before the winter break. The NFA has advocated for compensation and benefits cuts to be restored using federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for many months, since the federal funds were announced in March-April 2021.