Underfunding CSN

After repeatedly admitting to severely underfunding #CSN, the Nevada Legislature has now decided to hold CSN accountable for underperforming.  In 2001 and 2003 the Nevada Legislature formally recognized that CSN was substantially underfunded and therefore unable to adequately fulfill its mission.  As a community college, CSN’s mission was and continues to be providing traditional and non-traditional students access to affordable higher education.  This translates into not just putting bodies in classrooms with highly trained professors, but also providing a wide array of services, including financial aid assistance, degree counseling, tutoring, and remediation for skill deficiencies.  Because the legislature did not sufficiently fund CSN when student admissions skyrocketed in the 1990s, students, faculty, and staff suffered disproportionately through the 2000s.  CSN is once again bursting at the

seams, but instead of fixing the institution’s funding deficit, the Nevada Legislature has decided to focus on blaming students, faculty, and staff for low success rates.  It would seem more than fair to ask that the legislature first address its failure to fully fund CSN.  If anyone is to be held accountable for CSN’s “success” deficiencies, Nevada’s law makers need to admit to and accept their role in the problem.