A Message from Your NFA President

August 26, 2026

In this issue: Hawk Fire relief, the CB bill’s 2027 timeline, merit pay and the 90-credit degree pilot, the Regents’ August 27 budget meeting, the federal push on accreditation, a new TMCC contract, the PEBP crisis, and how to get involved.

A Word Before We Begin: Hawk Fire Relief

Many UNR and TMCC colleagues are living through evacuation orders, and some have already been displaced by the Hawk Fire. TMCC closed on the very first day of classes. If this message reaches you after your first class, that’s why: we wanted it to reach everyone, not just early inbox-checkers.

If you’re an NFA member affected by the fire, please complete our Wildfire Impact Survey so we can target assistance where it’s needed. And while we’re at it: every member, affected or not, should take a minute to update your contact information with NFA. The Nevada State AFL-CIO’s Northern Nevada Member Assistance Program is also running a food pantry for affected members at Laborers 169 Hall, 570 Reactor Way, Reno (rear entrance), Mondays 12–4 PM and Wednesdays 9 AM–1 PM.

Broader regional resources: shelter at Reno-Sparks Convention Center, Hall 4 (Door 20F off Kietzke Lane); small-animal evacuation at Washoe County Regional Animal Services; large-animal evacuation at Ironwood Event Center; fire line 775-244-6988; and Emergencywashoe.com for updates. Sierra Nevada Ally has ways to help colleagues who’ve been affected.

Please stay safe, and reach out to your chapter leadership if you or a colleague needs anything.

Welcome Back!

Colleagues, welcome back. It’s shaping up to be a big year for NFA, and we need you. Faculty nationwide are facing declining state investment, pressure on shared governance, and rising reliance on contingent positions, and Nevada is not immune. As an NFA member, you’re not facing it alone: our dual AAUP/AFT affiliation brings both a national reputation for defending academic freedom and the organizing muscle and legislative expertise driving our CB bill push this year.

The Collective Bargaining Bill: Where We Stand

This remains NFA’s single biggest priority this year, and it’s our best shot yet at winning collective bargaining rights for NSHE employees:

• Now: Bill language is being finalized with our drafting attorney and AFT’s legislative team; the State Board has retained a contract lobbyist.
• December 10, 2026: Deadline for the next round of bill draft request (BDR) filings.
• February 2027: The 84th Legislative Session convenes, running up to 120 days.
• Spring 2027: Committee hearings and floor votes, where we’ll need faculty testimony and visible support.

This is the one where every member can make a real difference. Reach out to stateboard@nevadafacultyalliance.org if you want to be involved, whether that’s testifying, showing up in Carson City, or just talking about the bill with colleagues who aren’t yet NFA members.

Why the Governor’s race matters: the last CB bill passed the Legislature in 2023, and Governor Lombardo vetoed it. Surviving the Governor’s desk, not passing the Legislature, has been our real obstacle, which is why this fall’s election matters so much.

NSHE-Wide Issues to Watch

Merit Pay & COLA. Faculty have gone the entire 2026-2027 year without a COLA or merit increase, and NSHE hasn’t asked the Legislature to fix that for 2027-2029 either. NSHE isn’t required to wait on the Legislature, though: a 2019 Task Force recommendation calls for a standing 1% merit pool funded from each institution’s own budget, and NSHE used exactly that path in 2022 with no legislative appropriation at all. It chose not to this year, so the real path to a raise runs through this spring’s legislative session, which is exactly why our CB bill work matters.

90-Credit Bachelor’s Degree Pilot. Not launched yet, but live, driven partly by neighboring states already offering 90-credit degrees and by Nevada’s mining sector pushing for a faster path to a Project Management degree. Faculty worry it could pull enrollment from existing programs and reshape gen-ed requirements system-wide.

Faculty Senate Chairs met with the Chancellor with a set of must-haves: students complete their associate degree in full before moving into the 90-credit bachelor’s, and any new program builds on existing NSHE’s stackable credential pathways. One wrinkle worth knowing: our accreditor, NWCCU, requires the word “bachelor” in the name but allows variations like “Applied Bachelor.” Senate Chairs are also pushing for more academic counselors, since these degrees are terminal and won’t count toward graduate study, and want students to know that going in. Faculty Senates remain closely engaged on this issue — if your program could be touched by this, loop in your Faculty Senate rep now, not after a proposal lands.

Regents Special Meeting, August 27: Budget & Governance

A special Board of Regents meeting on August 27 covers the next biennium’s budget and several governance changes:

• 2027-29 Budget Request: Beyond the standard formula budget, NSHE is asking for $289.8 million in Items for Special Consideration, the growth funding covering most system priorities. Public safety and cybersecurity top the Regents’ own ranked list, though healthcare workforce funding is actually the single largest ask overall. A $102,600 collective bargaining line item for TMCC is included.
• Target Funding Model: NSHE is pitching a new statewide funding formula. The case for it: Nevada ranks last nationally in per-student funding (SHEEO puts us at $12,695 per student against a $19,443 national average), a roughly $343 million annual systemwide shortfall. The model would close that gap gradually, by FY 2043 under current projections, without pitting institutions against each other. Still conceptual, no funding requested yet, but useful backdrop for our own COLA and merit pay arguments.
• Governance: The Board will vote on eliminating the IDEA Committee and creating a new Governance Committee in its place.

Board independent counsel. Item 11 opens a discussion of the Chief of Staff role, and it may be the most consequential item on this agenda. Today, the Regents rely on NSHE’s own Legal Affairs office for advice, the same office that answers to the Chancellor and the institutions the Board exists to oversee. Before a 2009 restructuring folded “Special Counsel to the Board” duties into the Chief of Staff position, the Board had a more clearly independent legal function. NFA has written to the Regents repeatedly this past year urging them to restore that independence: an attorney or senior officer who reports only to the Board, briefs Regents directly, and isn’t filtered through the administration it’s meant to oversee. This isn’t about doubting anyone’s competence. It’s about oversight: a Board that only hears the administration’s read on the law and its own options can end up deferring rather than governing. Item 11 is discussion-only, no vote, but it’s the opening the Regents need. Public comment is open at every Regents meeting, in person, by phone, or online; if you want the Board to hear this directly from faculty, that’s how.

Federal Accreditation Overhaul: What NFA Is Watching

At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Education has proposed a sweeping rewrite of accreditor recognition rules, implementing a 2025 executive order on accreditation reform, open for comment through September 21, 2026. It would ease entry for new accrediting agencies and require accreditors to apply standards “neutrally with respect to viewpoint and ideology.” Supporters call it cutting red tape and adding competition; critics, including many faculty groups, worry it weakens independent oversight and that “viewpoint neutrality” could be used to pressure curriculum and academic freedom rather than protect it. NFA sees real risk here, and we think members deserve the facts to reach their own conclusions. Read the proposed rule or the original executive order. If you have a view on this, comment directly at regulations.gov before September 21, individual comments carry real weight in a rulemaking record.

Closer to home, the Regents take up a related discussion at their September 3-4 quarterly meeting, alongside the 90-credit item above: how NSHE should respond to a federal call for “rigor,” transparency, and “intellectual pluralism.”

Bargaining Update: Chapters in Motion

Not every chapter is currently at the table, but here’s where things stand for those that are:

• TMCC: The Regents approved the new TMCC-NFA contract on June 12, a 5-year deal with reopener provisions. Administrative faculty, librarians, and counselors now have contract language equitable to academic faculty.
• NSU: About six months into negotiations on their first-ever contract.
• CSN & WNC: 17 months into negotiations (paused over summer, resuming this fall); both have requested third-party fact-finding after talks stalled. Open issues include workload, salary, faculty rights, and grievance arbitration. We’re also watching statewide pushback from NSHE aimed at rolling back existing faculty rights.

Legal Defense Work: Join the Team

Unlike a lot of unions, our AFT-AAUP affiliation means you can get support with essentially any workplace complaint, not just what’s in a bargaining contract: interpretation of policies and contract provisions, guidance on next steps, support during supervisory meetings, and legal representation at critical times. But that support runs on people, not magic. Our chapters need more members trained to advise colleagues and to join CB teams. If you’ve thought “someone should really help with this,” you’re the someone. Reach out to your chapter leadership.

Non-Disclosure Agreements. NSHE is increasingly relying on NDAs in settlements and complaints. If you’re asked to sign one, reach out to your chapter leadership first.

CSN Summer Teaching Pay Litigation. After three years, discovery has closed and NFA has requested summary judgment. The case is straightforward: CSN unilaterally changed summer teaching pay terms without reopening the contract or bargaining the change, so we sued to enforce what was already agreed to. This is what your dues fund: a union willing to go to court to protect a signed contract.

PEBP: Your Health Benefits at Stake

PEBP, the health plan covering all Nevada state workers and retirees, is in serious financial trouble, with reported reserve shortfalls in the tens of millions. Steep premium increases and higher out-of-pocket costs are already hitting our paychecks for 2026-27, and making PEBP whole will be a multi-year fight.

NFA has a seat at the table. We submitted Dr. Paul Davis as a candidate for the PEBP Board; he was appointed and now serves, giving faculty a direct voice in our health coverage.

Statewide AFT Structure

Because of the 2022 national AAUP-AFT affiliation, every NFA member is already an AFT member with the rights that come with it. What we’re refining is how NFA structures itself at the state level to make that affiliation fully accessible. Last year’s ratification vote came close but fell short; a member survey is coming this fall to shape a revised proposal before it returns to a vote. Your response to that survey is how this actually gets fixed, so watch for it.

Growing Our Capacity

NFA is hiring its first full-time statewide staff position in nearly eight years, a Membership & Organizing role funded by an AFT grant. We’ve also launched an Ad Hoc Finance Committee on dues structure and budget, and we’re transitioning chapters onto our affiliates’ updated communication and organizing resources. On the housekeeping side, the State Board is reviewing internal policies (records, financial controls, board accountability) to keep our operations as strong as our advocacy. And this year’s NSHE Faculty Senate Chairs have brought a genuinely collaborative relationship with NFA, which makes cross-campus advocacy easier.

Representing NFA Nationally

NFA represented members at the AAUP Conference, the AFT Conference, the AFL-CIO Convention (August 16-18), and ongoing work with the Northern and Southern Nevada Central Labor Councils. Five members completed AFT’s Cornell CB Training Intensive this spring, and leadership took part in AFT leadership training this summer, concrete, hands-on opportunities that come with AFT affiliation.

NFA members also turned out statewide for the No Kings rallies, hosted locally by Indivisible Las Vegas, including the March 28, 2026 rally at the Las Vegas Federal Courthouse.

 

The Bottom Line

It’s been a lot this year:

• A shot at collective bargaining rights further along than it’s ever been
• A real fight over merit pay and the 90-credit degree conversation
• Chapters bargaining first contracts and renewals
• Legal defense support beyond the contract, and now a fight to protect PEBP
• Our first statewide staff hire in eight years

None of it happens without you. If you see something on your campus NFA should be doing, let your chapter leadership know how you’re willing to help make happen. Testify. Comment on a federal rule. Talk to your Faculty Senate rep. Bring a colleague into the fold. Please renew your membership, and watch for the survey this fall. And remember: as an NFA member, you also have access to the full slate of AFT member benefits, from insurance programs to everyday discounts.

Thank you for everything you do for your students and each other, especially this week. Let’s make this a great year.

In solidarity,

Staci Walters

State President, Nevada Faculty Alliance