503 People have signed this petition
On June 6, 2014, the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Board of Regents will consider a 17% tuition increase over the next four years.
This vote has been pushed to the summer when (1) undergraduate students are either taking classes or are off campus or at work, and (2) newly-elected student government administrations do not have ample time to participate in such an important conversation. Not all other options have been investigated, other alternatives exist, and these proposed increases should be subject to compromise.
Tuition has steadily increased each fiscal year, totaling over 200% in increases over the last decade alone, and there is a correlation among tuition increases and administrators’ salaries. Regent Chair Ron Knecht, and Regent Vice Chair Allison Stephens of the NSHE Board of Regents Audit Committee, a board tasked with reviewing NSHE spending, oppose this tuition increase.
Undergraduate students in NSHE cannot afford another tuition increase pricing them out of their education and the NSHE Board of Regents will not be able to modify this tuition hike except in “emergency situations or extreme economic circumstances.”
Students in NSHE are steadfastly opposed to the NSHE Chancellor’s proposed tuition increases, set to be voted by the Board of Regents at its June 6 meeting, and will be involved in the 2015 legislative cycle to work, ideally alongside members of the Board of Regents, to
improve NSHE funding formulae.
The students of NSHE will not sit by idly now, before, or during the June 6 NSHE meeting, when votes will be cast for the proposed tuition increases, when votes are cast in the June 10 Primary election and November 6 General election, and finally at the 2015 Nevada Legislature discussing the funding formula for higher education in Nevada.
I stand with the undergraduate students of the Nevada System of Higher Education against proposed tuition increases and stand for transparent spending and accountability of NSHE. I urge the Board of Regents to vote “NO” to any tuition increase on June 5th or 6th 2014.