Less than 24 hours before debating the future of Nevada State College on television Wednesday, Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers secured a $2 million pledge from a fellow businessman to make sure the college will survive.
Rogers announced the gift from Las Vegas Sun President and Editor Brian Greenspun on Thursday's edition of "Face to Face With Jon Ralston," on Las Vegas ONE, Cox Cable Channel 19.
Rogers, the millionaire owner of Sunbelt Communications Co., the parent company of KVBC-TV Channel 3, has made the state college a priority for the 2005 Legislature.
He himself pledged $2 million toward the college in October in an effort to get state lawmakers to front the initial cost of the institution's liberal arts building.
Greenspun is matching Rogers' pledge to the college through his family's charitable foundation. The first $1 million will not be donated until the Nevada Legislature first pays to construct the college's $23 million liberal arts building, and the second $1 million will be donated after the building has been in operation for five years, both Greenspun and Rogers said.
Greenspun's gift is also contingent on Rogers and an anonymous donor following through on their pledges. The anonymous donor is supposed to provide $1 million.
The goal is to spur support for the college from lawmakers and other donors, Rogers said. Another $1 million donor will be announced at the college's second graduation ceremony on Thursday, he said.
"We (Greenspun family members) believe that higher education is important, we are committed to it, and we think that with Jim Rogers' gift and ours we might be able to attract a number of individuals and corporations in Las Vegas to follow suit," said Greenspun, the keynote speaker for the college's first graduation ceremony in May. "Whether people see the necessity for Nevada State College today, there is no question it will be there tomorrow."
On Ralston's show, Rogers railed against Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani's suggestion to co-locate Nevada State College on the CCSN campus and to merge some of the administrative functions of the two institutions.
Giunchigliani, who has consistently voted against funding the Nevada State College, said she believes co-locating the schools will save taxpayer money and allow for "seamless articulation" between the two schools. She said public support for the college is still weak, but since the school already exists, she is trying to find a way to make it work.
Rogers said he believes Nevada State College needs its own physical location to be able to handle the expected growth in enrollment. The goal in developing the state college and others like it is to continue to provide Nevada residents access to four-year degrees while increasing the selectivity of the state's universities and developing the universities into full research institutions, Rogers said. That won't happen unless Nevada State College is able to thrive.
"I'm very concerned with short-term fixes that become long-term disasters," Rogers said of Giunchigliani's plan.
Rogers and Giunchigliani agreed that they are both aiming for the same goal -- providing the most educational opportunities to Nevada residents for the least cost -- but they viewed the way of doing that differently.
Rogers also said Giunchigliani had the right to be upset over what he called "promises that never should have been made," referring to founding president Richard Moore's assertion that $10 million could be raised privately for the first building. Only $1 million has been raised so far.
Rogers also agreed with Giunchigliani that CCSN is severely underfunded, but he doesn't think merging the two schools will solve that problem.
Giunchigliani said the state college is siphoning money from the Nevada budget that should be going to the community college, but Rogers believes the state is saving money in the long run by providing bachelor's degrees at a cheaper cost.
Patricia Miltenberger, interim president for Nevada State College, said many of Giunchigliani's concerns are valid, but that they are all ones that have been answered before, both by RAND consultants and by a recent Assembly committee looking at the state's higher education system.
Many of the cost-saving ideals behind co-locating the campuses are already built into the college, Miltenberger and college spokesman Spencer Stewart said Thursday. UNR, UNLV and Great Basin College have all helped the state college in developing upper division curriculum, UNR has helped with accreditation, UNLV has provided business services and library aid, and CCSN, Western Nevada Community College and Truckee Meadows Community College all cooperate with the state college in providing lower division courses.
Co-locating Nevada State College on the CCSN Henderson campus, which are just one U.S. 95 exit away from each other, would also not save any money in capital construction needs because the CCSN campus already cannot meet the state college's classroom needs, Miltenberger said.
"We need more classroom space," Miltenberger said. "The growth of Nevada dictates that."
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