The Future of the University of Nevada, Reno:
The Commission Report
Commission Members
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David Ryfe, Journalism (Chair)
David Zeh, Biology (co-Chair)
Patricia Charles, Medicine
Amy Childress, Civil & Environmental
Engineering
Chris Coake, English
Kelly Corrigan, USAC
Anna de Bettencourt-Dias, Chemistry
Dana Edberg, Accounting & Information Systems
Stacy Gordon, Political Science
Janita Jobe, Libraries
Trudy Larson, Community Health Science
Steve Maples, Prospective Students
JoAnne Skelly, Cooperative Extension
Reginald Stewart, Diversity Initiatives & Center
for Student Cultural Diversity
Challenges Facing Higher
Education in Nevada
• Skeptical legislators
• State disinvestment in public
universities
• Stagnant economy
• Rising costs and burgeoning student
debt
• Salary erosion
• Disruptive innovation
• For profit, virtual universities
• MOOCs and the extinction of the
mid-tier university
Crisis? What crisis?
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Commission Charges
Given the fiscal constraints within which UNR will be
operating over the next 10-15 years, the institution will not
have the capacity to be comprehensively excellent.
However, it certainly can be excellent in specific areas.
What are these areas? What can and should the university
strive to be excellent in?
2. What strategic partnerships (with business, civic
organizations, and the like) can and should the university
expand and develop to bring new resources to the campus
(in the form of internships, curriculum, graduate
research/students, and so on)?
1.
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What other states have done:
the virtuous cycle
Recruit
Students
Financial
Aid
Gain
Control
Over
Tuition
Hire New
Faculty
Recruit
Students
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Nevada and Higher Education
State Contribution to UNR Budget
$300,000,000
$250,000,000
$200,000,000
$150,000,000
$100,000,000
$50,000,000
$-
A Comparison to Peer Institutions
Recommendations
 1. The university should invest its resources primarily in initiatives that stretch across
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two or more of its missions and units, and/or that provide faculty and students
opportunities to work across two or more units.
2. The next university strategic plan should incorporate the idea of blending,
connecting, and integrating across units and missions.
3. The administration, in consultation with faculty, should develop policies and
procedures that promote grass-root, faculty proposals for cross-college collaborative
research, teaching and outreach.
4. Recruiting efforts for top faculty should emphasize the potential for cross-college
collaboration.
5. Metrics should be developed that reward deans, directors and major units that
emphasize cross-college collaboration.
6. The university should create centralized grant preparation for multidisciplinary
proposal development.
7. The university should enact decision-making processes for the allocation of money that
accomplish three goals:
 Grow revenue while controlling administrative costs
 Increase the number of full-time tenure-track academic faculty
 Prioritize building links between missions and units across campus
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Cross-disciplinary Endeavors at UNR
 Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) $10M in
“Integrative Neuroscience” (Liberal Arts, Science and
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Engineering)
Mechanical Engineering $1.2M Graduate Teaching Fellows in K12 (Engineering, Science and Education)
Graduate and Undergraduate Programs in Gender, Race and
Identity (Liberal Arts)
Graduate Program in Hydrologic Sciences (CABNR, DRI,
Science, UNCE, USDA, USGS)
Undergraduate Major in Neuroscience (Liberal Arts and
Science)
Undergraduate Major in Molecular Microbiology and
Immunology (Medicine and Science)
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