Nevada Higher Ed: Visionary or Off Their Rocker?

Having spent almost ten years living in Las Vegas and working in higher education for most of that time, I am always interested in issues facing Nevada, particularly related to higher ed. Nevada's state slogan is "Battle Born" because it obtained statehood during the civil war...it seems this slogan can also describe the current state of higher education there.

I read the Inside Higher Ed article, then read the actual report submitted by Bruce James (Chairman of the Fresh Look at Nevada's Community Colleges Task Force) to the Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor, Daniel Klaich. The report highlighted issues similar to those faced in other states: shortage of trained workforce, need to improve college graduation rates, large numbers of students needing remediation, need to establish pathways from K-12 to and through college, be more strategic regarding program offerings at state institutions, and evaluate tuition and fee structures.

After outlining the issues, the report provided recommendations for the Chancellor to consider and while most of the recommendations were fairly routine (be more strategic about program offerings, raise tuition since it is very low in Nevada, focus on the increased use of technology, increase college graduation rates, create pathways from K-12 to college, etc.), the most controversial recommendation was to create a completely online community college called Nevada Virtual College (NVC).

The controversy comes because NVC would be separate from any other community college in the state, offering courses "priced to students on a full-cost recovery basis" and created and operated by a vendor chosen by the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE).

If you just read the Inside Higher Ed article and comments (and not the report itself) it may seem as though the concept of NVC is the worst thing ever suggested. Quotes from various faculty and other education leaders / administrators in Nevada ranged from subdued but straightforward "I am opposed to the creation of Nevada Virtual College" from College of Southern Nevada president, to a Dean at Truckee Meadows Community College calling the proposal to create NVC "ludicrous and without merit". One College of Southern Nevada faculty states "people had already been kicked and slapped around, and then they're told their jobs are being outsourced". Unless I missed something significant in the report, I didn't see any mention of eliminating faculty positions at the existing community colleges in the state. One might make the assumption that the online institution will cannibalize existing online enrollments from the other community colleges (or even four-year institutions), which might ultimately lead to elimination of faculty from those institutions. In all honesty, that seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

The article refers to NVC as a "privatized online college" and when I read that, I was somewhat surprised as that was not my initial interpretation. The report actually states that proposals may be solicited from all of the community and four-year colleges in Nevada (the Universities are excluded), Western Governors University, "and carefully selected for-profit institutions". I may be naive, but I'm not seeing anything in that language that immediately suggests that this endeavor would automatically be undertaken by a for-profit, which would make it a private institution.

Some comments question the ability to ensure academic quality when you are paying an operating organization based on students passing courses. At first blush, it does seem like a slippery slope, but the report clearly states that there would be an independent third party chosen by the Nevada System of Higher Education to evaluate the course mastery of each student...which to me is vastly different than simply providing reimbursement after a student passes a course. Additionally, the idea to provide bonuses to the operating organization for getting students to graduate is certainly novel. Now, I'm not saying that either are perfect ideas and both certainly would have the potential to go awry, but as an administrator at an institution with a fairly low graduation rate (albeit not as low as College of Southern Nevada's 9% which is really...really...really low, even for a community college), any help in increasing an important measure like graduation rates would be welcomed.

Granted, the recommendation to create NVC is fairly unique in several ways and potentially not viable; however, I would be very interested in seeing if it gets more fully developed and watching where it goes from here. I also understand that it is much easier for me to take the 'let's just wait and see' attitude because I no longer live and work in Nevada, but still I wonder if we fast-forward ten years, will this idea be a "remember when they thought about..." joke at a cocktail party, or will the concept be seen as ahead of its time and proven successful?