Nevada is home to more than 100,000 students who are taking advantage of the state’s higher education opportunities.
A lot rides on the decisions they make during those years in college or university.
It’s up to Nevada System of Higher Education, or NSHE, to make sure all these educational institutions are providing the best experiences possible. And with a new governor and the Nevada Legislature in session, some changes may be on the way for students, educators and everyone involved in higher education.
Byron Brooks and Joe Arrascada were both recently elected to new roles on the board that oversees NSHE. Brooks is the chair and he represents District 3 in Clark County, that’s the southwest area of Las Vegas, some of Henderson and Boulder City. Arrascada is the vice chair and he represents Washoe County.
On what needs more funding in higher education
ARRASCADA: I think it's not just one particular item. It's the entire conglomerate. The restoration of our budget is imperative to the productivity of the system itself. Having the opportunity to backfill positions, not just leadership roles, but most importantly, those of them with their hands on the ground, the ones in the trenches, the faculty, … the staff, the individuals who are there, providing the educational opportunities for our students, the restoration of benefits, the long-term plan of assisting those to bring fruition for the students to make sure that when they've walked across the stage and have the diploma in their hands, that they're doing it in the best place possible, which is going to be the state of Nevada. So having the restoration of benefits, the restoration of our budgets, is most imperative, in my opinion, to the entire system. It's not one particular school, it's not one particular college. It's not one particular aspect of higher ed, it's all as a whole. And that is what is most important.
On working closer with the Clark County School District
BROOKS: It's a fantastic idea and process that we should be following. And the reason I say that is because a week and a half ago, I was at Superintendent [Jesus] Jara's office and had this conversation. We have to be able to, again, when we talk about education in Nevada, if we want to take a look at what are going to be our greatest successes, what are going to be our greatest ways of achievement, it's working collaboratively together, not just with the higher education institutions, but also our K-12. That K-12 system, there has to be things that are set up to be able to close these gaps. And when we talk about gaps, we're talking about achievement gaps, somebody who's leaving high school and now looking to get into a state college or university, maybe a community college, we want to make sure that they're prepared to take on the coursework that's going to be demanded of them. There are other policies and procedures that we should be taking a look at as well that might have to do with behavior.
On what changes NSHE is expecting
ARRASCADA: Every six years, we have to run for a new term. … We just brought on five new regions from the 2022 election. But I want to go back and make a true statement in regards to unsubstantiated claims from our former chancellor, and there were some hard feelings in regards to everything that happened and how it came across. And I want to describe those hard feelings. There were hard feelings for the board. It was hard feelings for the staff, there's difficulty for leadership, it caused somewhat of a rift throughout the state of Nevada, we have picked up from that moment, we are continuing to to thrive. What we have done is like all large businesses, and let's just face the fact … every higher education throughout the entire nation is running a business. But the business has been providing positive results. But yes, we have picked ourselves up and we continue to work together on a collaborative effort. And all of us are finding what is the certain niche that we want to focus on. And we focus on that. And when we dive into that, collectively, we're going to have an outcome that's going to be positive again.
On limiting the NSHE board from 13 members to nine
BROOKS: My concerns are that once again, we're not asking the right questions. And we're not spending the time in an efficient manner to dive into the challenges that exist in higher education, and how to resolve those challenges. It's irrelevant to me what body we might have a conversation about, there's going to be challenges in that body. There's challenges in the Assembly, there are challenges in the Senate body, there are various personalities that exist that sometimes make an area challenging, there's no way that we can get away from that. But if we're using that as the launching pad … we should develop new processes in terms of how regents are either elected or appointed, and what it looks like to have length of term and the number of individuals that will be on this body, then we're not talking about the things that are actually going to move the needle when we are speaking specifically about access to higher education, student success, student experience on a campus campus growth and development.
Guests: Bryan Brooks, chair, Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents; Joe Arrascada, vice chair, Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents