State Employee Healthcare Premium Increases for Plan Year 2025

The Public Employees’ Benefits Program (PEBP) Board has approved increases to employee premiums for Plan Year 2025.  Beginning July 1, 2024, monthly premiums will increase by $8 to $53 (percentage increases from 8% to 25%) depending on your plan choice and dependent tier, as shown in the following table. 

Most plan provisions will remain the same for FY2025. PEBP is implementing a centers-of-excellence program for specific surgeries and a cancer treatment concierge program, intended both to save money and help patients get better treatment. Some changes, however, will increase participants’ out-of-pocket costs. High out-of-pocket costs force some participants to forgo necessary medical care. The deductible for the High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) will increase from $1500/$3000 (single/family) to $1600/$3200 because of a higher IRS minimum for eligibility for Health Saving Accounts (HSAs). The supplemental contributions to HSAs or Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs) for all three plans will decrease from $600/$700/$800 (single/spouse or children/family) to $300/$400/$500, while the regular HSA/HRA contribution to the HDHP remains at $600.

Why Rates are Increasing

Each year, the PEBP actuary predicts medical inflation trends. Governor Lombardo used lower trends than those predicted by the actuary to design the 2023–25 executive budget for PEBP, and the legislature adopted those low trends. Because FY2024-to-date expenses and the actuary’s projection for FY2025 now indicate higher expenses, PEBP must fund the higher costs through employee premium increases or with reserves. Without using reserves, the employee premium increases would have been twice those shown in the table above. However, PEBP is potentially dipping into the Catastrophic Reserve (formerly known as the rate stabilization reserve) to mitigate employee costs.

PEBP Reserves

As of December 2023, PEBP’s total cash balance was $121 million, including $42 million in the Catastrophic Reserve. The cost to mitigate 50% of the employee premium increases for FY2025 is $7.3 million. Although PEPB will not go broke, spending reserves below the mandatory levels set by the actuaries means the difference must be made up in the next budget cycle. However, we won’t know whether the reserves are being depleted until the close of each fiscal year.

For the past dozen years, as the following chart shows, PEBP has often generated excess reserves because actual claims have come in lower than projected, especially after benefit cuts. Excess reserves are cash balances above the mandatory reserves set by the actuary, and have ranged up to tens of millions of dollars. Although excess reserves declined in FY2023 and FY2024, because they partially restored benefits cut during the pandemic, these reserves have never gone negative. However, the excess reserves have helped the governor and legislature justify lower budgets for PEBP.  The result is that PEBP’s actuaries predict shortfalls, inducing PEBP to raise employee premiums or cut benefits. This perversely leads to the generation of more excess reserves. 

NFA Positions

Given the realities of PEBP funding, these more moderate premium increases approved by the PEBP Board are about the best that can be done at this time. Therefore, NFA supported the 50% mitigation plan over the alternatives of higher charges to employees. We appreciate that PEBP Executive Officer Celestena Glover proposed the mitigations after the initial plan for higher employee premium increases was announced. 

However, the NFA believes that the state should pay 100% of single-employee premiums in the basic plan, as most local governments in Nevada do this for their employees. Benefits have been cut or employee premiums have been raised every time there has been a budget shortfall or projected shortfall. PEBP should use its ample reserves instead of making employees pay for fluctuations in claims that are typical of any self-funded insurance plan. The State should be responsible for funding stable benefits for its employees.

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The Nevada Faculty Alliance has strongly advocated for faculty and other state employees with the Public Employees Benefits Program since the PEBP Board was established in 1999 and before that with the state Committee on Benefits. It is a constant battle to maintain benefits and keep employee costs in check. Currently, Kent Ervin and Doug Unger represent NFA members at every PEBP Board meeting and meet regularly with PEBP staff along with our public employee advocate partners. To support these efforts on your behalf, join NFA now if you are not already a member.

NFA would like to hear members’ concerns about PEBP. Contact kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org or doug.unger@nevadafacutlyalliance.org. You may also contact the NSHE representatives on the PEBP Board, Michelle Kelley (mkelley@nshe.nevada.edu) or Jennifer McClendon (jmcclendon@unr.edu).

Following the NFA's call for Patrick Boylan to resign from the Board of Regents after his hostile response (7:53:16) to a student leader's public comments (7:52:00) hoping Boylan would "expand and change [his] paradigm" regarding LGBTQIA+ individuals, the Nevada State Student Alliance issued a powerful statement denouncing multiple regents for inserting ideological, geopolitical, and regional rhetoric into Board deliberations. 

"We are learning from our regents that many are controlled by singular issues that do not promote progress within institutions. Some board members, like Regent Brooks, fixate on geopolitical matters, some, like Regent Arrascada, focus on perpetuating regionalist and irrational ideologies between the north and south of our state, and some, like Regents Boylan and Goodman, regurgitate extreme ideologies that manifest in racist and transphobic remarks. These dogmas have no place in the realm of higher education." - NSSA statement

 The State Board of the Nevada Faculty Alliance applauds the NSSA for their courage to speak truth to power, and we echo their observations. Too frequently, substantive and legitimate deliberations about the oversight of NSHE are derailed when a Regent raises a divisive and irrelevant issue instead discussing the substance of athletic reports and deliberating on the budgetary challenges confronting our programs that will lead tolong-term deficits. As the students of the NSSA pointed out, "[t]hey are not fulfilling their responsibilities to the students and citizens of Nevada."

Worse still are some of the reactions of these Regents toward their constituents who are bold enough to publicly disagree or challenge them. This was on full display on March 1 in Regent Boylan's response to NSSA President Kevin Osorio Hernandez exercising his right through Public Comment to share his perspective on the language used earlier in the meeting and to challenge Boylan to do better. NSHE Chief General Counsel James Martines had toinform Boylan (7:53:08) that he could not engage in back-and-forth debate with Mr. Hernandez during the Public Comment period, so Boylan insisted on making a public comment himself (another disturbing trend among Regents). 

The irony is probably lost on Regent Boylan, but by refusing to walk up to the podium where everyone else makes comments, and remaining in his seat at the Regents' table to decry that his First Amendment rights were being violated, he used a literal position of authority to denounce the criticism. As the NSSA students recommend, the Regent should become a student again and review the First Amendment, which prohibits those in power from suppressing the speech of others, not the other way around.

During a congressional hearing several years ago, former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, Alan Greenspan, likened statistics to skimpy swimwear. "What they reveal is interesting," Greenspan said, "but what they conceal is critical." In the case of the annual employee buyouts report presented to the Board of Regents earlier this month, NSHE delivered the documentary equivalence of a bell diver suit, revealing almost nothing. While the Board of Regents set transparency and accountability as a strategic goal, the staff of the System Administration appear intent on moving in the opposite direction.

The annual reports are the result of a policy passed by the Regents in early 2019. It requires NSHE to share information regarding employee buyouts and settlements following the revelation in November 2018 that approximately $8.8 million had been spent by NSHE institutions in the previous biennium on employee-related buyouts. As previously reported in Missing Buyouts in NSHE Buyouts Report, the Regents received the first detailed report in March 2020, another in March 2021, and a third in March 2022. Those multi-page reports, however, gave way to a single page report with virtually no details in March 2023, and again this year.

NSHE institutions frequently use settlement buyouts and termination agreements to avoid negative publicity about its employment practices. The detailed reports provided a much-needed glimpse into the extent of these practices. 

A review of the early reports reveals that individual institutions interpreted the policy language differently from one another, resulting in some inconsistent reporting. The drastic change in the March 2023 report, however, did not result from a change of policy. Instead, we can attribute the change in reporting to a new general counsel at NSHE, James Martines, and his interpretation of the policy language.

The briefing paper prepared by Martines for the 2022 report indicated that only payments directly associated with terminations and notices of non-reappointment are included. Amounts paid out to settle actual or anticipated litigation are no longer reported, and apparently, any payment made to an employee who agrees to resign to avoid termination is omitted as well. NFA is aware of at least one such case where a substantial payout under these terms was not reported.

Unfortunately, no Regents appeared to have noticed this dramatic change in the reports. It is clear from the minutes of the November 16, 2018 Board meeting that Regents at that time did intend for the report to include settlements.

NFA urges the Board of Regents to correct Chief Counsel Martines' misinterpretation of this policy and provide a full accounting of all independent payments made to employees associated with their separation from employment with any NSHE institution.

Read Missing Buyouts in NSHE Buyouts Report >>

The Nevada Faculty Alliance strongly condemns discriminatory, harassing or otherwise unacceptable behavior by any members of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) community. As such, we are deeply angered by repeated anti-transgender comments made by Regent Patrick Boylan during the quarterly Board of Regents meeting on Friday, March 1st. We are especially appalled by his aggressive response to a student leader who gave public comment decrying remarks made earlier in the meeting. In the March 1 meeting, Regent Boylan also questioned the qualifications of students from underrepresented minority groups. These are not isolated incidents. Regent Boylan has a history of racist and discriminatory remarks that have been condemned by a number of NSHE students, including the Senate of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada.

This behavior is not only offensive, it violates the NSHE Board of Regents Anti-Discrimination Resolution, which states that “the Board recognizes its resounding responsibility to the NSHE community, the State of Nevada, and its higher education families throughout the nation to denounce any words or actions with discriminatory intent or effect, and such efforts are exemplified by the leadership and representations of its Regents.”

Because Regent Boylan’s comments have directly attacked thousands of members of the NSHE community and are in direct violation of the Regents’ own anti-discrimination resolution, the State Board of the Nevada Faculty Alliance calls for his immediate resignation.

The State Board of the Nevada Faculty Alliance

Jim New, President and TMCC-NFA Chapter President
Shantal Marshall, Vice President
Joey Ray, Secretary
Cheryl Cardoza, Treasurer
Ted Chodock, CSN-NFA Chapter President
Pete Martini, NSU-NFA Chapter President
Doug Unger, UNLV-NFA Chapter President
Todd Ruecker, UNR-NFA Chapter President
Heather Reardon, WNC-NFA Chapter President
Kent Ervin, Past President
Staci Walters, Collective Bargaining Committee Chair

NSHE Buyout/Settlement Reports Omit Buyouts

Since 2019, the Board of Regents has required that NSHE institutions annually report their contract buyouts and settlements for transparency in the use of public funds and for holding institutions accountable for employment practices. However, while Regents have set transparency and accountability as a strategic goal, NSHE has recently allowed for the omission of several types of buyouts and settlements from the institutional reports to the Regents.

The proponents of Question 1 (to remove the Board of Regents from the Nevada Constitution) have attacked NSHE for a lack of transparency and accountability. To counter those arguments, the Regents should take prompt action to correct the NSHE General Counsel’s new interpretation of the buyout reporting policy. Without this action, institutions can hide their settlement and buyout activity.

Omission of Cases

The Regents’ briefing paper for the 2022 buyout report partly signaled the change in the implementation of the buyout reports:

"Due to the form currently used for institutions and units to report employee contract buyouts, the amounts reported include sums that are not directly associated with the contract buyout amount, such as required payouts of accumulated annual leave and amounts that may settle actual or anticipated litigation. Accordingly, the Chief General Counsel will update the reporting form to allow more accurate reporting in the future."

This implies that buyouts and settlements related to litigation or even the possibility of litigation are now excluded from the reports. In addition, buyouts and settlements are apparently not being reported in cases where no Notice of Non-Renewal is issued, such as agreements resulting in termination following disciplinary proceedings or other voluntary separation agreements. It is also not readily apparent which categories of NSHE employees are included in the reports. Starting in 2022, the annual reports were retitled from “Employee Buyouts/Settlements”  to “Employee Contract Buyouts.” As a result of the change in the interpretation of Title 4 Chapter 3 Section 49 of the NSHE Handbook, the reports are obscuring the number and magnitude of contract buyouts, which in some cases have been used to remove employees who have brought complaints against the institution and to establish non-disclosure agreements.

Buyout Report Summaries, 2019–23

Tables 1 & 2 summarize the buyout reports for 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. Looking at the NSHE report for 2023, it would appear that the number and amounts of buyouts have declined. Although such a scenario would be welcome, the definition of reportable buyouts has been narrowed into meaninglessness. 

For example, the University of Nevada, Reno, reported zero buyouts in 2023. However, NFA is aware that a former employee agreed to resign from their UNR position in 2023 in exchange for a large settlement payout. In addition, the buyout reports for 2022 do not include the well-publicized $27,000 per month paid to former UNR Athletic Director Doug Knuth after he was fired in April 2022 nor the roughly $100,000 per month due to former UNLV football coach Marcus Arroyo after he was fired in November 2022. (Update 3/1/2024: According to public compensation records for 2023, Arroyo was paid $1.16 million in 2023 after his termination in 2022.  The UNR employee received a six-figure payout in 2023. )

(Update 3/1/2024. NSHE Chief General Counsel reported to the Board of Regents that the buyouts listed in the 2023 report "saved" $95,000 compared with the standard notice periods for Notices of Non-Renewal.  However any putative savings are almost certainly surpassed by settlement amounts that are not being reported.)

Table 1. NSHE Reported Buyouts/Settlements - Total Amounts

Calendar Year	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
UNLV	$347,406	$90,409	$0	$0	$58,087
UNR	$91,201	$53,144	$38,479	$40,310	$0
NSU	$0	$0	$0	$0	$13,767
CSN	$77,295	$0	$63,314	$0	$0
GBC	$25,000	$184,001	$0	$0	$0
TMCC	$71,988	$543,992	$403,097	$46,881	$75,235
WNC	$0	$196,327	$122,583	$356,645	$55,192
DRI	$40,000	$7,308	$0	$0	$0
System	$60,741	$27,102	$154,158	$869,564	$15,533
Total	$713,631	$1,102,283	$781,631	$1,313,400	$217,814

 Table 2. NSHE Reported Buyouts/Settlements - Number

Calendar Year	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
UNLV	6	2	0	0	1
UNR	4	2	1	2	0
NSU	0	0	0	0	1
CSN	3	0	1	0	0
GBC	1	3	0	0	0
TMCC	2	13	12	1	2
WNC	0	4	3	6	1
DRI	1	1	0	0	0
System	1	1	3	5	1
Total	18	26	20	14	6

Full Transparency and Accountability

As stewards of public funds, the Board of Regents should clarify the reporting policy to encompass ALL compensation that is not earned through service, for all classes of employees and former employees. This includes but is not limited to:

Transparent reporting of these items would not require the identification of individuals or release of confidential information, only the aggregate numbers and monetary amounts by institution and type of payout. Payments for attorney fees and expenses as part of a settlement or termination agreement should also be reported. Note that the former NSHE General Counsel told the Board of Regents that settlement agreements are not confidential per Nevada Revised Statutes:

"NRS provides that any agreement to settle a claim or action brought against an employee must not provide any terms of the agreement be confidential. NRS also provides that the settlement must include a number for attorney’s fees and costs to be paid pursuant to the agreement and that any settlement is public record."

The omission of relevant data in reports to the Board allows NSHE institutions to obfuscate the use of public funds and to avoid accountability for employment practices. 

As always, faculty members with an employment-related issue should feel free to contact the NFA for guidance. 

***

Data and interpretations are based on the cited reports and other Board materials. Corrections from authoritative sources are welcome (Contact: kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org).

Recently, the State Board of the Nevada Faculty Alliance reached out to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to express concerns about violations of shared governance at the University of Nevada, Reno. The AAUP acknowledged NFA’s concerns about the climate at UNR and responded with an advisory letter that included relevant AAUP statements on aspects of shared governance.

The AAUP informed us that only about 10% of the complaints they receive rise to the level of our letter. The State Board of the Nevada Faculty Alliance has sent UNR leadership a copy of this letter, and we hope they will read through these materials and work with faculty via the Senate and other groups to improve the climate at UNR. We are confident that faculty members across the institution will value this effort, which will also help improve some of the widespread retention and morale issues reported to us and others.

Our complaint to the AAUP began with expressing concerns about ongoing threats to shared governance and academic freedom. Our formal complaint was that:

. . .various members of the administration, guided by UNR’s Office of the General Counsel, have facilitated the dismissal of academic misconduct charges and/or the altering of student grades without faculty permission; have set an unreasonably high bar for removing disruptive and threatening students from classes; have greatly limited faculty’s ability to revise college bylaws; have undue influence on the Title IX/EEO process; have engaged in problematic hiring practices for institutional leaders; and provided overly restrictive guidance around DEI work. 

The AAUP quickly replied that the described behaviors were concerning and that only 10% of the complaints they receive rise to this level of action–the full letter can be seen below. The AAUP recommended that the NFA send the upper administration a letter explaining relevant AAUP guidance around some of the described issues.

The AAUP also provided three relevant guidance documents–we are including links to and relevant excerpts from each letter below:

Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities

The variety and complexity of the tasks performed by institutions of higher education produce an inescapable interdependence among governing board, administration, faculty, students, and others. The relationship calls for adequate communication among these components, and full opportunity for appropriate joint planning and effort.

Faculty Participation in the Selection, Evaluation, and Retention of Administrators

…the composition of the search committee should reflect the primacy of faculty interest, and the faculty component of the committee should be chosen by the faculty of the unit or by a representative body of the faculty. The person chosen for an administrative position should be selected from among the names submitted by the search committee. The president, after fully weighing the views of the committee, will make the final choice. Nonetheless, sound academic practice dictates that the president not choose a person over the reasoned opposition of the faculty.

The Role of the Faculty in Budgetary and Salary Matters

The faculty should participate both in the preparation of the total institutional budget and (within the framework of the total budget) in decisions relevant to the further apportioning of its specific fiscal divisions (salaries, academic programs, tuition, physical plant and grounds, and so on). The soundness of resulting decisions should be enhanced if an elected representative committee of the faculty participates in deciding on the overall allocation of institutional resources and the proportion to be devoted directly to the academic program. This committee should be given access to all information that it requires to perform its task effectively, and it should have the opportunity to confer periodically with represen- tatives of the administration and governing board.

Despite the gravity of the issues discussed in our original letter and in the AAUP response, NFA leadership remains hopeful for positive changes in shared governance at the University of Nevada, Reno. In the meantime, we advise faculty to do the following:

1. Contact their faculty senators to express any concerns about violations of shared governance and encourage the Senate to engage on these issues.
2. Share instances of shared governance violations with NFA leadership, so that we can advocate accordingly.
3. Share relevant concerns with one’s regent.

Fiscal Analysis of UNLV and UNR Annual Athletics Reports for 2022-2023

[Update:  After NFA called out these projected deficits [1], revised Annual Athletics Reports for UNLV and UNR were posted as supplemental materials for the March 1 Board of Regents meeting.  UNLV raised various projected revenues to about break even for FY2025 through FY2028.  UNR raised projected revenues and reduced some projected expenses, but still projects about $2 million per year in deficits for FY2025 through FY2028 (after spending the $10 million per year in additional institutional support).  Neither UNLV nor UNLV provided public explanations for how or why they revised their budget projections.]

Both UNLV and UNR are projecting multi-million dollar annual deficits through fiscal year 2028, which would lead to cumulative deficits of $27 million at UNLV and $38 million at UNR by 2028. At the March 1, 2024, Board of Regents meeting, the Intercollegiate athletics programs at UNLV and UNR will present their 2022–23 budget information for the past five years and projected budgets for the next five years. Institutional presidents and the Board of Regents are responsible for holding athletics programs, as well as other “self-supported” university programs, accountable for fiscally sound practices. Alarmingly, the UNLV and UNR presentations contain no strategies for avoiding these unsustainable budget deficits other than vague mentions of increased gifts or university subsidies.

Here, we provide a fiscal analysis of the two NCAA Division I programs at UNLV and UNR, highlighting issues of concern.

Charts 1A and 1B (below) show the reported* annual operating revenues from the athletics self-supporting budgets for UNLV and UNR, respectively, from FY2016 through FY2023 (actuals) and FY2024 (projected).  The revenues are categorized as (a) state appropriations, (b) student fees, (c) tuition and fee waivers, (d) institutional support, or (e) athletics income.  Athletics income includes ticket sales, NCAA and conference distribution, media revenue, contributions designated for athletics, and all other program revenue of the athletics programs.

Charts 2A and 2B (below) show the annual operating surplus (or deficits) reported* to NCAA by UNLV and UNR, respectively, along with cumulative surpluses (deficits) starting with FY2019, the most recent annual athletics reports that stated the ending reserve balances, with projections through FY2018.  The cumulative deficit for UNR does not include $8.25 million in "historical debt" that was assumed by the university in 2018.

UNLV

UNLV increased institutional support by about $10 million in FY2021 using federal COVID relief funds to cover pandemic-related losses, then returned university support to previous levels (see Chart 1A). 

Contributions increased from $4.6 million in FY2023 to a projected $14 million in FY2023, and then are projected to continue at $10 million per year (see “Contributions” under Revenue on page 25 of the UNLV Annual Athletics Report). The source of these higher contributions to the UNLV athletics program was not discussed in the 2023 Annual Athletics Report.

For FY2023, UNLV reported an operating account deficit of $10 million.  For FY2024, UNLV projects breaking about even. For FY2025 through FY2028, UNLV is projecting annual deficits of $4.2 to $5.8 million, which would result in a cumulative deficit of $27 million in FY2028 (see Chart 2A). The 2023 UNLV report does not indicate how this deficit will be addressed, only stating the athletics budget office is seeking to clarify institutional support (page 24).

Compensation for coaches at UNLV is increasing from $7.9 million in FY2023 to $11.4 million projected for FY2024, a 44% increase (compared with 12% cost-of-living adjustments).

UNR

UNR increased institutional support by about $10 million per year beginning in FY2021, initially to cover pandemic-related losses (see Chart 1B). UNR projects that higher level of university support to continue through FY2028. Reportedly, the initial funding for the increased institutional subsidy came from federal COVID relief funds while current and future funding is from Marigold Mine royalty income. However, the UNR Marigold Mine royalties are a finite and variable source of funds so it is unclear whether that is sustainable.  

For FY2023, UNR reported breaking even with an operating account surplus fo $23,339.  For FY2024, UNR projects a deficit of $2.9 million. For FY2025 through FY2028, UNR is projecting annual deficits of $7.4 to $9.7 million, which would result in a cumulative deficit of $38 million in FY2028 (see Chart 2B). These deficits are projected to occur despite the $10 million per year in additional university support. The 2023 report suggests that “additional University support” from UNR will be requested (see “Institutional Revenues” footnote on page 12) in an attempt to maintain parity within the Mountain West conference. That contradicts assurances from the UNR administration that UNR will hold the line on any further increases in institutional support and that Athletics cannot come back and ask for more.

Compensation for coaches at UNR is increasing from $8.8 million in FY2023 to $9.4 million projected for FY2024, a 7% increase (compared with 12% cost-of-living adjustments).

Chart 1A.

Chart 1B.

Chart 2A.

Chart 2B.

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 *Notes: The annual reports for the NCAA Division I programs at UNLV and UNR contain revenue and expense data as reported to the NCAA and as tracked for the self-supporting budgets internally in Workday. The latter exclude various indirect and indirect support, and different accounting standards may apply (e.g., cash vs accrual bases). Also, despite a 2018 NSHE internal audit review designed to make the UNLV and UNR financial reporting more consistent, the format and breakout details of the budget tables in the annual reports are different. Here only apples-to-apples data are compared as we understand the reports. Corrections from authoritative sources are welcome (Contact: kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org).

References

• 2016 UNLV Annual Athletics Report
• 2017 UNLV   Athletics Report
• 2018 UNLV Annual Athletics Report
• 2019 UNLV Annual Athletics Report
• 2020 UNLV Annual Athletics Report
• 2021 UNLV Annual Athletics Report
• 2022 UNLV Annual Athletics Report
• 2023 UNLV Annual Athletics Report [Update: Revised 2/27/2024]
• 2016 UNR Annual Athletics Report
• 2017 UNR Annual Athletics Report
• 2018 UNR Annual Athletics Report
• 2019 UNR Annual Athletics Report
• 2020 UNR Annual Athletics Report
• 2021 UNR Annual Athletics Report
• 2022 UNR Annual Athletics Report
• 2023 UNR Annual Athletics Report [Update: Revised 2/27/2024]

[1] The revised reports for Agenda item 20 appeared sometime after 5:35 pm on February 27.  NFA's written public comment to Regents reprising the data in this blog post of February 23 was submitted on the morning of February 27 at 7:14 am.

The board of the UNR Chapter of the Nevada Faculty Alliance expresses concern about the integrity of hiring processes for leadership positions at UNR. In the past week, a blog post raised concerns about the publication record of Dean Erick Jones of Engineering and led to additional coverage in the Sagebrush, This Is Reno, and Retraction Watch. While we believe that Dean Jones deserves due process in the investigation of these allegations, as would any faculty member, we have heard concerns from faculty across campus about his hiring process, as well as the hiring processes for various executive-level leaders. Given that UNR has seen record turnover in dean and vice president positions since 2020, with additional searches ongoing, ensuring full consideration of stakeholder input in these processes is paramount for hiring the strongest candidates who have the qualities to lead effectively while also being respected as leaders in their fields.

It has come to our attention that the processes set in place by college and university bylaws are not always being followed in leadership searches. Whereas the UNR Bylaws and University Administrative Manual have clear requirements for Vice President searches with faculty representation, we have seen at least two Vice Presidents (the VP, Governmental Relations and Community Engagement, and VP, Legal Affairs) appointed into their positions without a search, and the new Vice President for Information Technology was appointed after a search for a Vice Provost for Information Technology. The following table, based on data gathered via NFA public records requests, documents the searches and appointments of Vice Presidents by President Sandoval. In one case (VP, Governmental Relations and Community Engagement), there is no record of the required notice of appointment to the Board of Regents.

Position	Incumbent	Date Appointment Reported by President Sandoval to Board of Regents per NSHE Handbook 1.6.1(b,c)	VP Search following UNR Bylaws 3.6.3 and UAM 2,522	Search Firm
Executive Vice President and Provost	Jeff Thompson	12/13/2021	YES	WittKiefer
Vice President, Administration and Finance	Andrew Clinger	6/1/2023	YES	UNR search chaired by Patricia Richard
Vice President, Advancement	Patricia Richard	5/5/2023	NO (interim appointment)
Vice President, Governmental Relations and Community Engagement	Michael Flores	No record of notice to Regents in response to NFA public records request	NO
Vice President, Information Technology	Sasi Pillay	11/17/2022	NO (search for Vice Provost, Information Technology)	WittKiefer
Vice President, Legal Affairs	Mary Dugan	11/4/2022	NO
Vice President, Student Services	Catherine Cardwell	11/30/2023	NO (interim appointment)	Current UNR search for VP, Student Affairs, chaired by David Shintani

In multiple instances, the hiring of leaders has been perceived as being decided by who they know, rather than the qualities they bring to the positions. NFA has expressed these concerns in at least one previous letter sent to President Sandoval, to which NFA received no response. In the case of the search for the Engineering Dean in 2022, using the outside search firm AcademicSearch, five finalists were brought to campus, whose forums were announced via a campus-wide email. After this search failed to result in a hire, Dean Jones was invited to campus in the middle of the summer, when most faculty are off contract, and appointed a few weeks later. Engineering faculty have alleged this process bypassed the initial search committee and that faculty concerns were ignored.

Recently, we have seen a shift to simply appointing people into campus-wide leadership positions. After the departure of the previous Director of Latinx/Hispanic Community Relations in June 2023, who was hired via a formal search with campus and community forums, a new director was simply appointed. At the December 2023 Senate meeting, President Sandoval said that he was in talks with someone he would like to appoint as the permanent Executive Director of DEI. After some senators raised concerns, he opened a search with a short application window, but no information was provided about a search committee or campus forums for this important position. While opening a search was a promising step, a compromised search is just as bad as no search. Similarly, on February 5, 2024, the campus community was notified that Mehmet Tosun was appointed as the Chief International Officer for UNR–no search was conducted for what appears to be an important campus-wide position.

The Wolf Pack Rising strategic plan calls for UNR to “Increase faculty and staff diversity to achieve alignment with the National Association of System Heads (NASH) Equity Action Framework on hiring, retention, promotions, and rewards best practices.” Failing to conduct proper searches with input from a variety of stakeholders hinders the University’s ability to find talented candidates from a diversity of backgrounds, and risks people being promoted based on who they know, rather than the qualifications they bring to the position.

We are not questioning the qualifications of individual candidates, but rather calling for the administration to rebuild the UNR community’s confidence in our leadership by recommitting to shared governance in future executive hires. This work can include:

• Having search committees and public forums for all leadership positions at the Dean level or above, or those that have a campus-wide role.
  
• Ensuring that the chairs of search committees work closely with committees through every step of the process.
  
• Selecting search committees that represent a diversity of perspectives and empower those committees to have a strong role in shaping the hiring process.
  
• Conducting stakeholder surveys, and centering that feedback in the hiring process–consider releasing summaries of those surveys to the campus community.
  
• Ensuring that any person involved in the hiring process discloses any personal connections or conflicts of interest that may influence their hiring of a particular candidate, and recuses themselves from a decision-making role.
  

By taking these steps, we believe that UNR’s leadership can correct course and restore our faith in the hiring of future leaders.

The State Board of the Nevada Faculty Alliance issued a formal resolution calling on the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Board of Regents and Chancellor to commence national searches to fill the imminent vacancies in the offices of President at CSN, GBC, and TMCC as soon as practical, and to include faculty input in the search process as required by the principles of shared governance. It called for NSHE to initiate the TMCC search by May 2024, conduct interviews during Fall 2024 Semester, and select a successor in Spring 2025 Semester for a start date of July 1, 2025. Additionally, national searches for CSN and GBC should begin as soon as is practical for permanent presidents to be named before the end of Fiscal Year 2026.

The resolution also asks the Regents to restore searches as the preferred method for filling executive vacancies. Over the past decade, small incremental changes in the NSHE Code (Title 2, Chapter 1, Section 1.5) have dramatically altered the methods for filling vacancies for the Chancellor and campus presidents. Traditionally, in the spirit of shared governance, national searches with broad-based screening committees were used to select our executive officers. But, starting in June 2013, the Board began to adopt revisions that have significantly eroded this shared process, favoring appointments to fill the positions over a comprehensive search. 

This came into sharp focus at the December 2023 quarterly meeting of the Board when interim appointments were proposed for two upcoming presidential vacancies. Despite having advance notice of more than a year and ample time to conduct a legitimate national search while the incumbents serve out their terms, the NSHE Code now requires appointments of either an officer in charge, an acting president, or an interim president. National searches have been demoted and, apparently, only occur after one of these temporary solutions have been put in place.

This has led faculty members on multiple NSHE campuses to have growing concerns as the process for filling vacancies has become increasingly opaque. The State Board of the Nevada Faculty Alliance urges the Board of Regents to reverse the changes made to Title 2, Chapter 1, Section 1.5 of the Handbook in July 2013 and March 2018, and restore national searches as the preferred method for selecting all NSHE executive officers.  

An interim president has been appointed for GBC starting on July 1, 2024. This does not preclude the ability to conduct a subsequent national search, allowing the interim president to compete for the permanent position with other qualified candidates from a diversity of backgrounds.

CSN President Federico Zaragoza announced his June 2024 departure before July 2023. Despite plans to appoint an interim successor at the December 2023 meeting, the appointment was tabled and CSN faculty have no idea of what is happening. What little transparency existed before has evaporated. With insufficient time to conduct a national search before President Zaragoza’s departure, we urge the board to collaborate with faculty and stakeholders to find a suitable acting president, and plan for a search over the next year.

TMCC President Karin Hilgersom, in exchange for a one-year contract extension and a waiver of her periodic presidential evaluation, committed to a June 2025 separation from NSHE in July 2023. Faculty members at TMCC have confirmed that they prefer a national search to identify her replacement. With 17 months remaining before her departure, it is not necessary to appoint an acting or interim president since a legitimate national search is possible while she holds the office. 

UNR Budget: Misplaced Priorities and Diverted Resources

Summary and Solutions

Part 8 in NFA’s series on the University of Nevada, Reno budget crisis. This final installment summarizes our analyses of fiscal actions by the UNR administration and recommends solutions along with actions faculty members can take.

In this series of articles, we have attempted to shed light on the budget crisis at UNR. The administration has attributed the budget shortfalls to the underfunding of COLAs by the state, but the numbers indicate COLAs are not the primary factor. Long-overdue salary increases to restore faculty take-home pay (just back to 2019 levels after inflation) have been used by the UNR administration to justify austerity measures that threaten our core education and research missions.

In contrast, UNR executives–who also received their full COLAs–have not held themselves to those same austerity measures, by increasing executive salaries and the number of executives, committing to a thirty-year public-private partnership costing $10.25 million/year, and greatly increasing support for athletics. We are concerned that UNR is following the disastrous paths of West Virginia University and Auburn University, two publicized institutions with profligate spending on athletics, administration, and buildings. As a result, Auburn has become one of the most expensive public universities for students, and WVU eliminated entire academic programs when their promised enrollment increases never materialized.

Fortunately, some of these decisions are reversible. The key to putting UNR back on track as an excellent comprehensive university serving students and the citizens of the State of Nevada is to once again prioritize our core educational and research missions.

The fiscal consequences of decisions by the UNR administration are summarized in the following table.

Administrative Actions since 2020	Fiscal Impact
Increased University Support for Intercollegiate Athletics (Part 2)	An additional $10–13 million per year beginning in FY2021
New executive positions and increased executive salaries (Part 3)	$4.5 million per year over and above COLAs and average merit
Student registration fees diverted from the State Operating Budget to Capital Improvement and General Improvement (Part 4)	$3.65 million per year diverted from the main instructional operating budget
Committed funds to the Business Building public–private partnership (Part 5)	$10.25 million/year for 30 years; unless additional private fundraising is successful, up to $7.8 million/year will be from student registration fees
Inflated enrollment projections (Part 6)	Budget shortfalls of $8.5 million in FY2024 and $10 million in FY2025
Legislative underfunding of faculty and staff COLAs cited for 100 frozen positions and 5% budget cuts to departments (Part 7)	Net cost of the COLAs is $8.9 million in FY2024 and $8.2 million in FY2025, after mitigations approved by the Board of Regents in December.
Digital Wolf Pack Initiative (iPads for new full-time students)	About $3.5 million per year
Acquisition and operations of Lake Tahoe campus	Uncertain long-term impact
Budget Cuts	Fiscal Impact
Freezing or eliminating 108 positions	Savings of $11.3 million in FY2025
5% budget cuts for state-supported departments	Savings of $11.1 million in FY2024
5% administrative overhead charge for self-supported programs	$5 million cost to self-supported programs; income to UNR administration

• Estimated ongoing annual cost for athletics, executives, the business building, and iPads: up to $31 million per year.
• Each $1 million is equivalent to 10 new faculty positions [1].

Funding Sources

As documented in Part 4 and Part 5, student registration fees have been diverted from the core instructional budget to fund the business building while private fundraising goals have not yet been successful. We have so far been unable to determine funding sources for the rest of the listed new expenditures. The annual budget reports to the Board of Regents lack sufficient detail (video) to allow tracking of revenue flows. Public records requests submitted to UNR in December 2023 to discover the distributions of other student fees [2] and Marigold Mine royalties [3] have not been answered. Regardless of the sources [4,5], monies allowed for ongoing personnel or operational expenditures would have been available to UNR’s main instructional operations—that is, for the personnel and programs directly serving students.

Recommendations

The administration’s expensive initiatives can perhaps be justified on their merits when considered in isolation and if UNR had the funding to support them. In the absence of infinite resources, however, the question should always be whether the core missions of the University will be enhanced or harmed by a shift in budget. When athletics, buildings, and administrators are given higher priority than the instructional faculty and student support staff in a period of budget cuts, the judgment of the decision-makers must be questioned.

The following essential changes are needed:

• Every new cost initiative must be judged not only on its merits in isolation, but also whether it is the best use of funds to serve the university’s core educational mission.
• The administration must demonstrate a commitment to shared governance, in which faculty and students have a voice in decisions impacting them. Shared governance requires more than simply responding to Faculty Senate questions or listening to concerns at campus-wide meetings. Shared governance requires learning from comments made by those who know about these subjects and then meaningfully altering those plans to ensure the university can serve its core educational mission.
• Reduce institutional support for UNR Intercollegiate Athletics, which succeeded for decades without the higher new level of revenue, which comes from public or student money.
• The business building must raise its private philanthropy goal beyond the $50 million for the quasi-endowment of the Marigold Mine. Raising this goal–instead of expecting students to pay for it–would allow registration fees to be rededicated to the State Operating Budget.
• Eliminate the new executive positions established since 2020, and return tenured incumbents to the teaching faculty ranks so they can better serve students, who are currently struggling to find the courses they need to graduate.
• Cap future COLAs for highly compensated employees.
• Replace the universal iPad initiative with a more targeted and cost-effective approach.
• Develop a fiscally sound plan for the Lake Tahoe campus. A business plan to make the campus profitable—or less of a drain on UNR’s operating budget—has yet to be articulated.
• Grow on-campus student enrollment while maintaining a low student–teacher ratio of 18 or less. Full-time, in-person students are needed both for a thriving campus environment and to maintain tuition and fee revenue streams.
• Expand concurrent enrollment of high school students only if this program is demonstrated, with data, as having a net positive benefit.
• For full transparency, resume publication of detailed annual UNR budgets with actual revenues and expenditures by department and sources of funds, starting with FY2023.

In addition to advocating for these changes, the NFA will be engaging with the NSHE Ad Hoc Committee on Higher Education Funding to promote improvements to the legislative funding formula that are more responsive to student needs and NSHE’s educational mission.

Call to Action

The NFA does not believe it is too late to reverse the tide and that, even without a “formal” union, faculty can contribute to helping UNR return to its core instructional mission. We recommend faculty members take the following actions:

• Talk to your colleagues in other departments and colleges about their experiences. By being aware of the campus-wide issues, we can work together to solve them.
• Counter, whenever possible, the narrative that COLAs are to blame for austerity cuts.
• Ask your department chair or unit head to take your concerns to your Dean or Vice President.
• Contact your Faculty Senator(s) with questions you would like them to ask the administration. Include the impacts on your department and ability to teach.
• Ask the Faculty Senate Officers to demand full transparency from the administration on the sources and uses of funds and financial reserves.
• Contact your Regent and state legislators to tell them about your experience in trying to help students succeed and how budget cuts have impacted your department or college.
• Ask Regents to hold UNR and other institutions fully accountable for budget decisions.
• Encourage your colleagues to join the Nevada Faculty Alliance to support our continuing advocacy. With greater numbers, we can do more.

Articles in this series:

• Part 1. Overview
• Part 2. Increased University Support for Athletics
• Part 3. Growth of Executive Positions and Salaries
• Part 4. Student Registration Fees
• Part 5. Business Building PPP
• Part 6. Inflated Enrollment
• Part 7. Underfunded COLAs
• Part 8. Summary and Solutions

_________

[1] A UNR Assistant Professor hired at Q1 on the current salary schedule would earn $69,383. Adding the 33.8% fringe rate gives $92,834, or 10.8 positions per million dollars. By the Board of Regents action on December 1, 2023, the salary schedules will be augmented by 10% as of July 1, 2024, giving 9.8 positions per million dollars for future new hires.

[2] The categories of fees collected as part of student per-credit registration fees include State Operating Budget funding, Student Access for financial aid, Capital Improvement, General Improvement, and Activities & Programs. Only the State Operating Budget portion goes directly into the main state-supported UNR operating budget; the other categories distributed by direction of the UNR administration. The expenditures from those General Improvement and Activitieis & Programs fees have not been reported in the recent past, but in response to the 2022 legislative audit the Board of Regents is requiring annual reports in the future for those fees and other per-credit student fees..

[3] Marigold Mine royalty income is another unrestricted revenue source for UNR. As described in Part 5, $50 million in accumulated royalties were transferred to a quasi-endowment at the UNR Foundation to help fund the Business Building.  [Update 2/2/2024: According to public records received, in addition to the $50 million transfer out to the UNR Foundation in FY2023 another $5.6 million was transferred out for "Institutional Support". The destination of those funds has not yet been determined.  The following chart shows that the multimillion-dollar royalty income started in FY2020. The remaining balance in the royalty account as of 6/30/2023 was $491,542.]

[4] A source of unrestricted funds for UNR is distributions from NSHE Operating Pool Investment Income. The following chart shows the income distributed to UNR from FY2018 through FY2023, using data obtained from a public records request to NSHE. Normal monthly distributions occur when the reserve balance is between 3% and 8% of the operating pool fund. Special distributions occur when reserves exceed that range. An extraordinary distribution in FY2021 was from the special Market Fluctuation Reserve, essentially a rainy day fund, to cover pandemic-related budget cuts after the 2020 special session. If this unrestricted income is being used for ongoing expenses, the low distribution in FY2023 due to poor market performance that year may have contributed to the current budget crisis at UNR.

[5] In FY2023 the UNR Foundation distributed nearly $19 million to UNR in program gifts as well as $7.2 million in scholarships. Most of the program gift distributions are for donor-designated programs. However, undetermined amounts may be unrestricted funds; for example, program gifts labeled as program or college “excellence”.

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The information in this series of analyses of the UNR budget is based on public reports and records, interpreted as accurately as possible given uncertainties in the assumptions used for various reports. Corrections from authoritative sources are welcome. Contact: kent.ervin@nevadafacultyalliance.org.

Updated 2/2/2024 to include additional information about the Marigold Mines Royalties account.