Latest news with #UNR
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nevada's grad student workforce pushes for collective bargaining rights
Graduate assistants at UNLV are among those at NSHE institutions statewide seeking collective bargaining rights via the United Auto Workers, whose members nationally include roughly 100,000 people working in higher education. (Photo: Michael Lyle/Nevada Current) Graduate students employed within the Nevada System of Higher Education say they have little recourse when dealing with hostile work environments, low pay, demanding workloads, and financial instability. Riley Jones, a PhD student studying life sciences at UNLV, said the current system leaves graduate workers at the whims of 'our advisers, departments, and graduate colleges to support us when one demand, one responsibility, one job conflicts with another.' 'We need a union so that we have the power to advance our own rights and win a contract that we can use to protect ourselves independently of this flawed system,' said Jones at a rally on UNLV's campus last week. 'We deserve support that is not dependent on departmental politics or changing administrations.' Nevada Graduate Student Workers, which comprised graduate assistants from UNLV, UNR and the Desert Research Institute, voted in November to unionize. Despite more than 2,100 graduate assistants supporting efforts to unionize, NSHE has not recognized the union. Graduate assistants, including Jones, gathered Wednesday at UNLV and UNR to describe working conditions at NSHE institutions and call on lawmakers to pass Assembly Bill 191, which would give graduate assistants the right to collectively bargain for better pay and conditions. The rally was held a week after the legislation received its first hearing at the Assembly Government Affairs Committee. The bill 'gives professional employees the same rights and responsibilities for collective bargaining as other public employees in Nevada,' said Democratic Assemblymember Natha Anderson, AB 191's sponsor. The legislation, she said, wouldn't conflict with the state's right to work laws and so wouldn't require any NSHEemployee to be a dues paying member of a union if they don't want to be. It would simply 'balance' grad school workers 'with other employees by covering it in state law, instead of hoping that it's going to be agendized in a meeting,' Anderson said. Kent Ervin, a legislative liaison with the Nevada Faculty Alliance, told lawmakers that while collective bargaining is allowed through NSHE's policy handbook, the language is outdated and doesn't give the same protections as in state law. The bill, if passed, would apply not only to grad assistants, but also to academic faculty, administrative faculty, and part-time instructors 'if they in the future choose to form a bargaining unit and ask to be recognized,' Ervin said. Employees would be able to negotiate and seek resolutions of contract disputes through the state's Government Employee-Management Relations Board. This 'would save time and litigation, a clear benefit to both sides,' Ervin said. Alejandro Rodriguez, a lobbyist with NSHE, said the system does not have a position on the legislation, but is 'fully committed to finding solutions sooner than the legislative process would allow.' The Vegas Chamber was opposed to the bill and expanding the state's collective bargaining law. Nick Snyder, a lobbyist for the chamber, said allowing graduate assistants the ability to collectively bargain 'could potentially harm the academic relationship between students and faculty, while also causing disruption in the educational process.' The committee took no action on the bill. Speaking at the rally Wednesday, Evelyn Airam, a graduate assistant in the School of Integrated Health Sciences at UNLV, said when surveying other graduate workers throughout the NSHE institutions, they found the same workplace harassment and pay issues. Airam said that one in four NSHE graduate assistants surveyed said they experienced or witnessed retaliation for raising workplace issues, and that 79% of grad students employed in the system reported they didn't earn enough to cover living expenses. She had previously highlighted her own struggles to survive on a $21,500 salary to state lawmakers when speaking in favor of AB 191 at the legislative committee hearing earlier in the month. 'I personally have been forced to skip meals, sell my blood plasma on a weekly basis, and worry if gas in my car was enough to make it to work or classes,' she said during the hearing. It doesn't just demoralize the current workforce, but prevents NSHE universities from attracting potential graduate students, she said. 'We must attract and retain top scholars,' Airam told lawmakers. 'How can we do that when wages don't cover rent, when there is no independent recourse for mistreatment, and when GA's positions are constantly insecure?' Several graduate students testifying in support of the bill reiterated some of the same concerns around being overworked and underpaid or dealing with unfair treatment from department heads and other faculty. Work conditions regarding safety and security are also a concern, said Pete Martini, an assistant professor of psychology at Nevada State University and president of the school's arm of the Nevada Faculty Alliance. 'Regardless of the reasons we come to the table … faculty and graduate students want to argue in good faith,' he said. 'Without AB 191 we are bargaining across the table from NSHE while they call balls and strikes.' Republican Assemblymember Danielle Gallant questioned the aspect of bargaining over pay since students get reduced tuition as a form of 'sweat equity.' In response to students testifying about high workloads with little compensation, Gallant said she often has to work more than 80 hours a week as a business owner and a part-time legislator. 'I know it sucks, but sometimes you just kind of have to grin and bear it. It builds character,' Gallant said with a laugh. Airam said while most graduate assistants work more than 40 or 50 hours a week – on top of their studies and research related to their graduate program – they are only contracted, and paid, for 20 hours a week. As an international student, she also has federal restrictions on working outside of campus, making it impossible to get another job — if she had the time for one. Gallant's up-from-bootstraps musing notwithstanding, the issues at hand are not about character but 'about survival and the basic needs,' Airam said. NSHE officials say they try to work with students to address individual concerns. But Jones said graduate assistants need a system that doesn't resolve workers complaints 'on a case by case basis.' 'We've been told time and time again that the administration supports us and wants to work with us to fix issues we face,' Jones said. 'We deserve to have a union so our power as GAs is recognized.'
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
As ‘match day' nears, med schools, lawmakers want to expand residencies to keep doctors in Nevada
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — On Friday, March 21 — just a week away — more than 40,000 medical students around the country will find out where they will be serving their residencies. About 300 of those graduates are from UNLV, UNR and Touro University, but there aren't enough residencies in the state to keep them here. Natalie Osborn, a fourth-year student at Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine who is working toward a career as a pediatrician, wants to stay in Nevada. A Coronado High School graduate who went to UNLV, Osborn isn't alone, but opportunities in Nevada are limited on match day. 'Instead of hoping that our students come back to practice in Nevada, I would love to see more opportunities for students to train where their roots are so we can give back to the community that grew us,' Osborn said Thursday, one of several medical students on hand to testify in support of legislation that would allocate $9 million over the next two years toward grants under the Graduate Medical Education Advisory Council, which was created in 2023. Fellowships and residencies are expensive training programs, but they are a key part of keeping doctors in Nevada. Mark Kahn, dean at UNLV's Kirk Kerkorian Medical School said there is a significant shortage right now. 2024: Las Vegas medical students 'matched' with residency programs More details came from Jeffrey Murawsky, chief medical officer for HCA's Far West Division, which includes Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, Sunrise Children's Hospital, MountainView Hospital and Southern Hills Hospital. 'As was mentioned, we are at the bottom of the physician ranking. It would take 1,589 new doctors with none of us retiring to get to just average for access. The best way to close this gap, as Dean Kahn mentioned, is to grow our own,' Murawsky said. Senate Bill 262 (SB262) has wide support among Democrats with 10 primary sponsors led by Sen. Julie Pazina. Another 25 lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly have signed on as co-sponsors. Kahn told senators on the Health and Human Services Committee that increasing the number of doctors comes with a choice: import more or grow your own. And residencies have proven to be an effective way to keep medical students from leaving. Kahn said about 40% of Nevada's med school graduates practice here, and about 60% of residents remain rather than leaving for another state. 'But if you do both, it goes to about 80%,' Kahn said. Jacob Lamay, a UNR medical student, said, 'The reality is that without a surgery residency program here, my path and the paths of many aspiring surgeons like me, will lead us out of state. This summer and fall I will be traveling to different states to showcase my skills as a fourth-year medical student to hospitals that train doctors in my surgical field of choice. I hope that they choose me when I apply for residency this September but I would have preferred to stay here in Nevada if this were possible.' Kelsie Little, a gold miner's daughter from Elko and now a fourth-year medical student at Touro, is another example. 'Hopefully, matching next week. Nevada is my number one.' Without a residency here, the opportunities are out of state. 'I would like to be a physician for the community that served me, but I may not have the chance to,' she said. SB262 realigns the committee that would supervise the grants, moving it under the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. Not much has happened since it was created two years ago, but lawmakers think that will change under DHHS. Dr. Wolfgang Gilliar, dean at Touro University Nevada, believes that the program will need to grow significantly. 'We need to talk about $50 million,' he said. But for now, he acknowledged, 'With little, we can do a lot. With nothing, we can do nothing.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UNLV, UNR funding would dip under new formula presented to Nevada lawmakers
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A rebuilt funding formula for the state's colleges and universities became a target for officials Tuesday during a budget hearing in Carson City. Lawmakers and leaders from the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), seemed to agree on one thing: The formula doesn't do much more than shift money around in ways that don't satisfy anyone. And not enough money, according to some officials. Gov. Joe Lombardo's proposed budget for NSHE in the 2026-27 biennium is $2.7 billion. Nevada Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, a Las Vegas Democrat, questioned whether lawmakers should approve NSHE's proposed formula. 'Based upon your answers today, that what we have is a funding formula that is not working for two of the largest institutions here in the state,' she said. UNLV and UNR would lose a combined $42.5 milllion that would go to smaller schools. Patty Charlton, interim chancellor at NSHE, responded, 'I would agree that — and I think if the presidents were all to come up they would say — that the funding formula didn't work for any of them as a whole.' Charlton argued for the opportunity to tweak the budget formula going forward, while Cannizzaro asked if it would be better to just get the formula right from the start. Looking to add context, Charlton described the formula as it exists now as a distribution model that has changed over the years. Charlton was part of the 2013 effort to change the formula, and it resulted in the elevation of UNR and UNLV to R1 research institutions, she said. 'Yes, this needs to be a work in progress. We need to continue to work with your staff and with the institutions to really define where we need to go as a state,' Charlton said. Cannizzaro invited leaders from UNLV and UNR to weigh in, and that led to comments on existing funding levels. 'The net funding per FTE (full-time equivalent student) in Nevada is the lowest in the country,' UNLV interim leader Chris Heavey said. 'And so essentially all of our institutions are working on a shoestring budget.' Heavey stepped into the role when UNLV President Keith Whitfield resigned on March 3. The statistics he cited show Nevada funds higher education at about 63% of the national average, based on FTE funding. 'It is a struggle. We're in national competition to hire faculty and to retain our faculty and it is sometimes a struggle for us to compete with other R1 institutions,' according to Jeff Thompson, executive vice president and provost at UNR. Heavey added, 'We often say we are R1 institutions funded at an R2 level.' UNLV is about $120 million short of budgets at other R1 institutions, Heavey said. Even so, he acknowledged the need for more funding at the state's community colleges. 'The two-year institutions are more underfunded than the four-year institutions,' he said. NSHE is the governing body for: UNLV UNR Desert Research Institute Nevada State University College of Southern Nevada (CSN) Great Basin College Truckee Meadows Community College Western Nevada College NSHE's budget challenges don't stop with problems with the formula. The Board of Regents increased student fees at all the state's colleges and universities by 5% recently to help pay for cost-of-living raises for employees who were left out when the state doled out pay raises in 2023. NSHE also delayed raises to help cover the cost. Now, they have to pay for those raises going forward, and they want the state to kick in. No one on either side of the aisle in the Nevada Legislature is happy about that. Republican Minority Floor Leader Assem. Gregory Hafen II remarked, 'Aren't you guys your own branch of government now?' His sentiment matched comments by the majority Democrats. 'I want to understand why those decisions were made and now, why they are coming back to us to fill the hole that basically they created,' Hafen said. Budgets for capital projects were not included in Tuesday's hearing. NSHE cited a backlog of $376 million in maintenance projects for campus facilities. The budget is expected to allocate $15 million. Another $50 million is needed for safety/security equipment to improve all the state's campuses in the wake of the December 2023 shooting at UNLV that left three faculty members dead. Only a fraction of that amount is expected to be approved in the budget. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Yahoo
UNLV testing cameras to read license plates in aftermath of deadly 2023 attack
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Cameras that can read license plates are part of the security response that followed the Dec. 5, 2023, shooting on the UNLV campus. They are just part of what UNLV is doing in an effort to keep students safer. University Police officials outlined changes that are in place and improvements that are still in planning stages during an update provided for Nevada lawmakers on Monday. Security improvements are being made at campuses across the state, but they at different paces because each school is different, Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) representatives said. Starting with UNLV campus, license plate reader (LPR) technology is being tested. 'If there is a threat, a known threat to any law enforcement within a specific area, we can have a vehicle tagged,' Arnold Vasquez, interim chief of police for the University Police Department's Southern Command, said in Carson City. 'And if it's coming onto campus or that vehicle is spotted coming onto campus, we would get an automatic hit, not only with our department, but with the neighboring law enforcement agencies, so we can know that particular threat is arriving to our campus,' Vasquez said. Beyond LPR technology, work is progressing to have all campus buildings monitored by camera — inside and out. Classrooms do not have cameras, officials said. UNR spend $1.3 million to upgrade cameras. 'It's not a big green blob anymore. It's a person we can see,' Eric James, chief of the Northern Command, told lawmakers. Systems are being put in place to limit access to campus buildings, with locks that can be triggered when there is a threat. The locks would keep people out, but it would still be possible to leave. Those kinds of systems can also use timers, so that buildings are locked down at a given time of day or night. The UNLV library is a security model that could be used for some other buildings, such as the UNLV student union. About $5.1 million was set aside for repairs and improvements at Beam Hall on the UNLV campus, the site of the shooting. The estimated cost for improvements across the entire campus was placed at about $38 million, and officials are trying to get most of that funding through the Legislature. And work is also proceeding on a way to lock a door just by hitting a button. Notification systems that have been in place for years are being improved, and it will be possible to go to one central website to monitor situations across all campuses. At the UNR campus, police have been working with a pair of drones. They are only used in response to a security incident, James said. 'What we don't want, is we don't want to give people the idea that we're spying on them by having a drone,' James said. The drones have been used in response to incidents in Reno and Washoe County, but they are not routinely deployed to patrol the campus, he said. Democratic Sen. Fabian Doñate asked about the possibility of controlling after-hours access to the entire UNLV campus. NSHE Chancellor Patty Charlton told him that there hasn't been a cost estimate done on that. Republican Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus asked if staff licensed to carry a weapon were doing that. NSHE officials said that's a decision made at each campus, but the rule is against carrying weapons. Charlton said the lessons learned from the 2023 shooting at Beam Hall that killed three people and left three more injured were applied across all campuses. 'It's not if, it's when,' she said. Several lawmakers commented that they were impressed with the response to the shooting. 'The way that everyone came together and did that was remarkable,' Democratic Sen. Marilyn Dondero-Loop said. 'Everybody did exactly the right thing.' Charlton singled out one part of the response. 'The Resiliency Center was incredible. The fact that they could stand up in 10 minutes and be able to provide shelter to those that needed it. It was a reunification location as well. But the counseling was absolutely astonishing. The quality. And so we were very very grateful for the Resiliency Center.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
28-01-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
UNR waits to see how Trump's funding freezes could affect campus
This is a breaking news story and will be updated. The University of Nevada, Reno said it is closely monitoring all presidential executive actions after President Donald Trump ordered the freezing of trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans beginning Tuesday. The Washoe County School District has not responded to a request for how it may have to navigate a freeze in federal funds and what could be affected. In a memo sent Monday by acting director of the Office of Management and Budget Matthew J. Vaeth, federal agencies were told to pause all activities related to the disbursement of federal financial assistance. It's unknown what the immediate effects would be to programs. Programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and student loans are not expected to be affected despite some sites, including Medicaid in Nevada, being down on Tuesday. While the memo didn't say specifically which programs would be affected, many at risk seem to fall in line with Trump's campaign promises. Federal agency officials have until Feb. 7 to respond to a list of questions about whether certain programs support or provide services, 'either directly or indirectly, to removable illegal aliens.' The instructions also ask whether the programs 'promote gender ideology,' 'promote or support" abortion "in any way,' or 'provide funding that is implicated by the directive to end discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and 'diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility' (DEIA) mandates.' "The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve," the memo from the president's office said. "The situation is still fluid, and it is not quite readily apparent what the long-term implications will be," UNR said in response to how programs could be affected at UNR or the state's other public institutions. In a letter sent to campus last week, UNR President Brian Sandoval said UNR is monitoring presidential executive actions closely. "I wish to make it clear to everyone on our campus – students, faculty and staff -- that the University is dedicated to maintaining an environment in which the members of our campus community feel safe, supported and encouraged to actively pursue their educational and professional goals," he wrote. "The University has made a commitment to provide our undocumented and DACA students with a number of resources needed to successfully navigate the often-complex path in reaching graduation – academic support, educational protections and benefits, legal support, mental health support and more." USA Today contributed to this story.
