Month:

Dear Campus Community,

To prepare for a possible announcement by the Supreme Court of the United States of America of a decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, I am reaching out to express continuing support and to share resources which may be helpful to students and employees who have DACA during this time of increased uncertainty. As a member of the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration I have expressed the strongest support along with others nationwide, urging Congress to find a permanent solution which will lead to security for immigrants living and learning in our country, and urging the Administration to defer any action until Congress is given the time to address the issue. Nearly one-third of people currently protected by DACA are working in industries and occupations deemed as essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. This serves to underscore how critical DACA recipients are for the recovery and wellbeing of our community.

At this time, I strongly encourage DACA recipients to renew your DACA before a Supreme Court decision is made, even if your DACA expiration date is over six months from now. The UNLV Immigration Clinic provides free DACA renewals. To schedule an appointment with an immigration attorney, please email immigrationclinic@unlv.nevada.edu or call (702) 895-2080. The NSHE All Access DACA Renewal Guide and the Nevada Immigrant Resource Guide have more information.

Nevada State stands boldly with the DACA recipients on our campus and in our communities. Nevada has the highest rate of undocumented immigrants per capita, and we are proud to support a thriving undocumented community of Scorpions. Students and employees are encouraged to join the NSC Dreamers Club to receive up-to-date information through our Dreamers Club newsletter. To receive assistance navigating campus and community resources, financial aid & scholarships, free legal services, mental health services, and community healthcare, reach out to Vincent.Nava@nsc.edu from the Office of Community Engagement and Diversity Initiatives. Our CARE Team Case Manager can provide additional resources including referral to counseling on campus. Reach out to her at Laura.Hinojosa@nsc.edu.  Scorpions interested in contributing to the development of resources for students and employees are encouraged to join the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. Email Pao.Vue@nsc.edu for more information.

I urge you to continue on your degree path.  We expect to have a robust fall enrollment and academic advisors are available to assist with fall registration (https://nsc.edu/academics/academic-advising/ssn/).

Sincerely,

Bart Patterson
President

Dear Faculty and Staff,

On April 11, President Patterson updated the campus community on proposed budget reductions requested by the Governor.  The update indicated that the college needs to plan for a 4% budget reserve that the State will sweep this fiscal year.  Because this request is coming in the 4^th quarter of the year, this is tantamount to a 16% cut.  The Governor also requested plans for 6%, 10% and 14% budget reductions for the next budget year, Fiscal Year 2021.

The college’s goal for addressing these budget reductions are to minimize the impact to core instruction and student services, protect current employees to the maximum extent possible and to continue to grow the college.  Consistent with these principles, Nevada State has submitted budget reduction plans to the Board of Regents which have been approved and submitted to the Governor’s Finance Office.

The required 4% reduction for FY20 will be met with salary savings from delayed or frozen searches, transferring allowable State funded expenses to self-supporting accounts, and cuts to operational balances. The operational cuts will come from departmental budgets as follows:

• One hundred percent (100%) of the available travel (6300 ledger lines) balances on all accounts as of April 16, 2020 will be swept to the 4% reserve;
• Ninety percent (90%) of the available general operations and printing (6000 and 6400 ledger lines) balances on all accounts as of April 16, 2020 will be swept to the 4% reserve

The solution for the first FY2021 reductions is funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.  This funding will take care of the entire 6% reduction scenario and part of the 10% level.  The next level of reduction will be across the board cuts to departmental budgets.  These reductions will be as follows:

• Fifty percent (50%) of all Host Accounts
• Thirty-five percent (35%)of all budgeted travel
• Ten percent (10%) of all budgeted general operations and printing

Beyond these solutions, the cuts become more impactful.  The 10% and 14% reductions will require personnel furloughs (½ day per month for the 10% reduction and 1 day per month for the 14%) be applied to Academic and Administrative Faculty, including campus leadership and executives.  The furlough will generate savings on both State funded and self-supporting sources.  The self-supporting savings will absorb some of the expenses normally funded by State funds. For the 14% reduction, the college will need to apply a student fee surcharge of $5 per credit hour.

The departmental budget cuts will impact all state and self-supporting accounts, except for grants. Questions regarding grants should be directed to postaward@nsc.edu. All questions regarding the budget reductions to travel, general operations, and printing should be directed to budgetoffice@nsc.edu.

Budget reductions are never an easy process. Nevada State College fully understands the economic realities that exist from the COVID‐19 health and economic crisis and is taking the necessary steps to meet the requested reduction in order to help our State restore its financial health.

Thank you,

Division of Finance and Business Operations

Dear Campus Community,

Regretfully as has been the case with other institutions, I am informing the campus that two students have self-reported positive tests for COVID-19. First and foremost, we extend our concern to these students and their loved ones. Our thoughts are with them and we wish them a full recovery.

Second, as the positive results are weeks removed from the students’ last in-person visit to campus, we do not believe our students, faculty, and staff members are at risk from an on-campus exposure based on information from these self-reports. For one student, the last visit was reported on February 10, and the student tested positive on April 1 (about 50 days later). For the second student, the student’s last reported visit to campus was March 12, and the student tested positive on April 8 (27 days later). For your information, there are strict privacy regulations prohibiting disclosure of identifying information regarding individuals testing positive for COVID-19. The typical protocol is that the information of an individual receiving a positive test is reported by medical professionals to the Southern Nevada Health District, which is responsible to perform any investigation to determine whether any other individuals may be at risk of exposure. The College has not been contacted by the Southern Nevada Health District to express a concern regarding potential exposure to the campus community.

Again, our thoughts are with these two students for a full recovery and we want to keep encouraging the entire campus to follow social distancing directives.

Sincerely,

Bart Patterson
President