University Business: A Better Community Starts With Better Education (Opinion)

College isn’t worth it. That was the message from a Pew Research Center study this year that reported 57 percent of Americans think the higher education system doesn’t give students a good value for the thousands of dollars in tuition and expenses they spend. Seventy-five percent said college is too expensive, and two-thirds of respondents who didn’t continue their education beyond high school cited financial reasons for leaving the classroom.


This is good and bad news for the valley. If you think of cities that were once struggling but are now thriving, such as Pittsburgh, Boston or Seattle, all of them are anchored by outstanding universities. UNLV, meanwhile, has faced budget cuts of $73 million and staffing cuts of 700, while its students have confronted tuition increases of 73 percent in the past four years. Professors have had their salaries and benefits cut. Programs have been eliminated and professors lost to competing universities. Morale is flagging.


But American higher education’s significant weaknesses give UNLV an opportunity to distinguish itself. To begin with, relative to the Cal system or private schools, UNLV is cheap.


A less obvious but more powerful opportunity for distinction: Be sure our graduates are well-educated.


Las Vegas Sun

University Business: A Better Community Starts With Better Education (Opinion)