Tribune/Debra Reid - Marching band musicians, alumni and high school students staged a march across the UNR campus on Wednesday. Some said the band's loss would diminish both the university's music department and campus pride.
Glick began the meeting by discussing the 37 university employees who have received non-renewal notices for the 2009-2011 school year notifying them that they are not being rehired as of July 1, 2009.
University policy requires non-renewals to be issued one year in advance, Glick said. As a result of the uncertainty of the state budget for the 2009-2011 budget cycle, non-renewals for the 2009-2010 school year had to be issued by Tuesday, before the beginning of the fiscal year. The cuts will save the university about $3.7 million.
The non-renewals, alongside the proposal to cut the marching band, are measures university officials have made pending the possibility of UNR’s budget being cut by 14 percent for the 2009-2011 biennium budget cuts — cuts that Glick called “draconian.”
A 14-percent reduction in the budget is a decrease of about $20 million, which is in addition to the 4.5 percent cuts the university made last January.
“I don’t know how you do 14 percent,” Glick said. “Fourteen percent will change the trajectory of the university.”
In response to students and community members protesting the cut of the marching band, Glick said the university’s aim is to protect the core mission of the university.
“The marching band as presently configured is very difficult to protect when we have these real challenges threatening our academic programs,” Glick said.
Cutting the marching band would save the university about $300,000, Glick said, but the university is still exploring alternatives.
“But it won’t be the same,” Glick said. “It’ll be smaller. It’ll be different. But I don’t want to say it’ll be the same.”
The marching band program is part of a “sticky campus,” Glick said, meaning it helps get students to stick around.
“Is it important — yes.” Glick said. “Is it as important as making sure you get into the English class you need? No.”
The university wants to continue to work with the community amid the financial crisis to maintain the integrity of higher education, Glick said.
In the upcoming months Glick said university officials will be looking at the size, quality, state need, accessibility and cost effectiveness in assessing which programs could be cut if the budget is cut by the projected 14 percent.
Glick also announced a faculty and staff buy-out with an age and service floor for employees who are considering leaving, which would help eliminate some of the financial shortfall.
Eighty-five percent of the university’s budget is people, Glick said.
“It’s a difficult time for the University of Nevada, Reno,” Glick said. “It’s a difficult time for the state of Nevada and our nation.”
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