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Local CSN Advocates Find Reason To Hope

Local CSN Advocates Find Reason To Hope
By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Published April 15, 2009

The struggle is still on to keep the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) center in Moapa Valley open and operational. But while its fate is still uncertain, recent events have given local advocates for the center a reason to hope. “I think that we are on our way to keeping it open,” said Moapa Valley High School (MVHS) principal Grant Hanevold. “Every subtle indicator that I have seen alludes to the fact that this center is able to be independent and possibly even turn a profit. I think that we have gotten that message across to the CSN administration.”

But Hanevold and other advocates admit that nothing is absolutely sure yet.

Last year, bleak state budget projections began to send rippling effects throughout nearly every state agency and department. CSN officials announced at that time that it would probably have to close six of its satellite centers beginning on June 30, 2009. One of those targeted was the Moapa Valley center.

Local education administrators viewed this as the worst possible time for such a cut. They had just begun ramping up a program that enhanced existing partnerships between CSN and MVHS. This program offered college courses to high school juniors and seniors. When MVHS achieved its empowerment status last summer, the CSN program became an essential part of the chief MVHS Empowerment goal to provide a better college prep experience to its students.

Last year, this plan had added four additional college courses to the available lineup of classes being taught during the school day. Before the current school year only one course, English Composition, was being offered through the college. This year courses in Accounting, Business, Psychology and Physiology were added. More were planned to be added next year.

Local administrators hoped that adding more courses and classes would attract MVHS students to the program and give them a head start when it came time to consider college. “If students take advantage of everything that is being offered, they could graduate high school with over 40 college credits,” Hanevold said. “That puts them well on their way to an associates degree.”

The response to the expanded program was overwhelming and immediate. Enrollment in the program grew to 86 students this year; up from 25 in 2007-08 and 13 in 2006-07. “That is about 25% of our student body that are eligible for the program,” Hanevold said. “It is a tremendous participation rate.”

In addition to the high school program, overall enrollment numbers for the local center have been growing as well. Total enrollment is currently at 196 classes registered for, up 185% from last Spring.

The growth is also reflected in the number of full time students working through the local CSN site. Moapa Valley has seen an increase in full time equivalent students by 171% over the last year. By comparison, other centers in the region have seen decreases in these numbers. Boulder City’s full time students decreased by 17% in the past year. The Mesquite center saw a 24% decrease in the same period.

With all of this in mind, local advocates went to work to showcase what they believe was the viability and potential of the Moapa Valley CSN site. In doing so, they hoped that they might save it from the chopping block.

Members of the Moapa Valley CSN Advisory Board began by contacting CSN officials. This group of local faculty, administrators and parents arranged a meeting with CSN President Mike Richards and shared a presentation which showed the trends and statistics for the Moapa Valley center. “He (Richards) was pleasantly surprised at our ideas and the success we are having,” said committee member Shari Lyman. “He was very excited about what we are doing and seemed to become more open to the idea that we would not have to shut down.”

The group was asked to develop a contingency plan to show how the center could continue to operate on limited resources. “We were also asked to work in cooperation with the Lincoln County site,” Lyman added. Lincoln county had also been identified on the list of closures. “This would be a way of pooling resources and finding a mutually beneficial plan to keep us both operational,” Lyman said.

As they met with Richards and other CSN officials it has become clear that the future of the local CSN satellite campuse was going to be heavily dependent on the budget that is finally approved by the state legislature.

“Let’s face it, if the funding to CSN is cut as far back as some have proposed, it won’t just be us closing,” said Moapa Valley CSN administrator April Krell. “Under those circumstances every single CSN learning center will have to close down except maybe the main campuses in Las Vegas.”

In hopes of gaining assurances over the budget issues, members of the committee have taken their case directly to state legislators. Hanevold and Krell participated in a conference call with Assemblyman Joe Hardy to discuss issues of equitability in the state’s higher education system. “We pointed out the fact that rural colleges in the state are funded at a higher level per student than CSN,” Hanevold said. “Presumably, this is because of the additional expense of bringing education out to the rurals. But it doesn’t take into account the rural areas of Clark County like Moapa Valley. Being a rural community in an urban system, we don’t really fit the mold and so we are usually the first to get cut.”

Other elected officials at the county level have also expressed support for keeping the local center open. County Commissioner Tom Collins has been outspoken in his support for the center throughout the community. “Commissioner Collins has met in person with President Richards,” Lyman said. “He has been very supportive to the cause of higher education in this community and a very powerful force.”

In addition, Commissioner Steve Sisolak has also gone to bat for the center. Sisolak, who served for a decade on the Board of Regents, feels the deep importance of keeping the local center in place. “There needs to be access to CSN for rural communities like Moapa Valley,” Sisolak said in an interview. “Coming into the city is often just too far of a drive for the rural residents. I strongly believe in reasonable access to higher education being available to everyone, including the rurals.”

Sisolak said that he counted CSN President Mike Richards as a very close friend. “I have spoken to him about this and communicated that it is very important to me to keep that center open,” Sisolak said.

Still there is no final word yet that the local center is saved. CSN officials can’t be sure about anything until they see the final budget from the legislature. “I want to be clear: we would like to be able to save all of the satellite centers,” said CSN spokesperson, K.C. Brekken. “If it were up to us we would be fully funded to keep everything open. But we still don’t have a budget from the legislature. Until we do, we can’t really say what we have to work with.”

Brekken stressed that CSN had never stated for sure that the centers would be closed. Only that if budgets were cut as proposed, the centers would be targeted for closure. “There is a lot of uncertainty right now,” she stated of the local center. “We were never sure it would absolutely be closed. We are still not for sure it will stay open.”

Local advocates know that the fight is far from over. But for now, Krell and the rest of the local advisory board are operating as if the center will be open. “I haven’t been told that we are closing,” Krell said. “So we are taking registration now for the summer and fall classes.”

Even if worse comes to worse and the local office must be closed, Krell is optimistic that the programs in place dealing with the high school will continue to operate. “No matter how they administer these programs, I’m quite sure that classes will continue here regardless of whether there is a local office or not,” Krell said.

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