Pulling To Keep Moapa Valley CSN Open
July 16, 2008 –Earlier this month, the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) dropped a bomb on the local educational community. Without any local discussion, CSN officials announced that its Moapa Valley center would be closed in June 2009 because of budget cuts. This happens at a time when a new early studies program, linking MVHS students to CSN curriculum, is just getting ramped up. The new MVHS-CSN program, slated to start this fall, has already brought more than a four-fold increase to the local CSN enrollment; and there is more yet to come. The program vastly improves the quality and quantity of educational opportunities available to local students. Just from a dollars and cents perspective the program promises to bring new students, more classes and additional revenues to CSN through the Moapa Valley site. Given all of this, it is difficult to understand why the CSN brass is being so hasty in closing up shop on the local site and go home.
It is true that painful budget cuts at CSN are inevitable. The State of Nevada finds itself in a budget freefall and has mandated that 14% of the CSN budget be cut each year for the next two years. That amounts to over $28 million in cuts. All that money has to come from somewhere.
And the Moapa Valley site is not alone. It is one of six other sites that are currently targeted for closures. Three are in Las Vegas, one in Boulder City and one in Lincoln County. The Las Vegas sites may make some sense to close, given the budget crisis. After all, students in urban Las Vegas have other options available just around the corner at the Cheyenne, West Charleston or other campuses. Students in Boulder City have a relatively short trip to the Henderson campus to continue their studies. But there are no such viable options for Moapa Valley students.
The Moapa Valley site has an annual budget of around $58,000. Most of that goes to pay the salary of its single administrator. The CSN Mesquite center, on the other hand, has a much larger budget with a large facility and three full-time administrators. But enrollment at the Mesquite center, while larger, has not historically been that much higher than Moapa Valley, especially when considering the significantly larger population base. The student base at the Moapa Valley center has also been steadier than Mesquite with more serious, degree-bound students enrolled. If the Moapa Valley center is closed, it is likely that most of this student base will evaporate and disappear, taking their tuition dollars to Utah or other places, rather than spending them locally in making the commute to classes in Mesquite or Las Vegas. Certainly the new and potential students which would be supplied by the new MVHS-CSN program would be lost entirely.
Obviously CSN must make some cuts. But from a good management point of view, a program that is growing with a strong and steady student base ought to be viewed as more than just an easy target for budget cuts. Perhaps one of the three Mesquite administrator positions ought to be reallocated and re-located in Moapa Valley to allow the local program to continue to grow and flourish.
But unfortunately, Moapa Valley doesn’t have the clout Mesquite has. With little political pull being exerted in our behalf it is easy for CSN officials to look at Moapa Valley as an easy place to cut. It becomes very easy, once again, to disenfranchise the unincorporated rurals.
However, we have a County Commissioner residing right here in our midst. Hopefully that will stand for something when it comes to political clout on this issue? As a former state legislator, Commissioner Tom Collins is well acquainted with state budget issues in general and this budget crisis in particular. We encourage him and Commissioner Woodbury to weigh in on this matter. When this community needs a little political pull to bring us equity; when we need something positive done for the community; we ought to be able to rely on the closest thing we have to local elected representation which are our County Commissioners? We also urge our state legislators, Senator Warren Hardy and Assemblyman Joe Hardy to weigh in as well. The CSN is, after all, a state institution.
In the end, this situation is about equity. This community has stepped up, it has developed a strong student base for our local CSN program, and now CSN is pulling the rug and leaving those students to twist in the wind. Our students are being required to bear a greater share of the pain of these unfortunate budget cuts than are others. Considering what is at stake, it seems that every effort ought to be made to spread the remaining scarce resources over as broad a base as possible; including the Moapa Valley student base.
CSN should not be allowed to so easily write off the Moapa Valley community.
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