Subtle hints are being dropped across campus about the effects of budget cuts on department activities, which will affect students in many facets of campus activity.
Rumors of student programs or services reductions are irritating students who want a definitive answer on what will be cut and how it will affect them.
Tina Saddler, director of the Student Health Center, said the services offered to students will not change, but some functionalities of operation will.
"Students pay a $68 fee every semester and that encompasses all the health and wellness center has to offer," she said. "We're very comprehensive."
Hiring freezes on campus have affected the health center, though, as there are open clinician and nurse physician positions open, which are going on unfilled at the time, Saddler said.
Furthermore, the hours of operation have been cut by two hours every day. Originally open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the health center will now be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saddler said.
The health center has seen a 25 percent increase in student traffic since it moved into the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, she added. The services offered include a full-service pharmacy, on-location labs, dermatological services and an OBGYN.
Jeff Wells, director of campus recreation, said the cuts have had a significant impact on student workers.
"The budget reductions have directly affected the student wages line for us," Wells said. "The number of students we're able to hire and the compensation that we're able to afford those students, [the cuts have] been an impact there."
Wells added that presently no staff positions are being cut or are going unfilled and student programs have yet to be diminished.
"We've actually been able to make certain that the Student Recreation and Wellness Center can still offer the programs and services that were designed to put into place in September of 2007," he said.
Group exercise classes, though, are being directly affected by the lowering of student wages as students primarily teach the classes, Wells said.
"Offering group exercise classes, the fitness classes, that is where we are feeling the impact," he said. "That would be the one area."
He continued that the classes offered have not been cut, rather they have not been able to expand programs as originally planned at the opening of the recreation center.
Nathan Hanke, assistant director of student activities, said that he has seen some budget cut effects on student events, but not as a direct link to cuts still being decided for the next biennium.
"We as an institution have observed a few things," Hanke said. "In terms of [the student activities office] and the student population, where it gets very interesting, is looking ahead to when the legislature comes back into session."
UNLV Student Involvement and Activities is not currently hurting by any extenuating budget cuts because the department has allocated funds based on student enrollment, Hanke said.
During the fiscal year 2005, the last year the old Moyer Student Union was open, there were 101 student activities on campus that generated a student turnout of approximately 18,400. In the fiscal year 2008, the start of the second year the new Student Union has been open, there have been 67 activities, which have generated a student turnout of over 19,300, Hanke said.
These numbers show that despite budget cuts, funding for campus programs continues as event turnout continues to increase.
Hanke also said that outside sponsorships for events is bubbling to the surface as talks of high budgetary cuts loom.
"Yes we want that support [of outside sponsors], but we also don't want to give everything away," he said. "We don't want to sell off everything and become corporate."
Still, talks of cutting entire departments on campus is rumored as the worst-case scenario.
In a letter to Chancellor Jim Rogers, State Sen. Maggie Carlton (D) said that using metropolitan police for campus patrol and safety would eliminate the need for a separate police department.
"Without question, campus safety is of paramount importance," Carlton wrote. "However, both [University of Nevada Reno] and UNLV have their own police departments."
On campuses surrounded by metropolitan areas, municipal police departments should patrol the campus, Carlton said, calling the separate university's police departments "redundant."
Still, until Gov. Jim Gibbons finalizes the official budget cuts in July 2009, effects on separate departments have yet to be determined. However, one thing for certain is campus departments are preparing for the worst.
