SPECIAL TO THE PVTGraduates of the Great Basin College Pahrump Campus, who made the trip for the commencement ceremonies at Elko, pose for a photo with their families. Graduates and instructors wearing gowns include, from left, Danna Miller, instructor Dale Griffith, Maria Vazquez-Reda, instructor Glen Tenney, Jenno DeGuzman, instructor Gregory Schmaltz, Kristin Cathcart, Linda Fitzgibbons and Lori Schaeffer. Other Great Basin College Pahrump graduates include Ivoree Alderson, Brianna Dague, Kyle Haas, Cheryl Lynn Johnston, Heather Kubinski, Stephen Rubio, Alexandra Shock and Krystal Ward. Advertisement

The 2009 budget cuts won't affect Great Basin College as drastically as once thought, John Rice, the director of institutional advancement, said.

The Nevada Legislature approved 13.1 percent in cuts for the Nevada System of Higher Education, the budget cut for the Great Basin College system in particular will be 8.5 percent, Rice said.

The Great Basin College system based in Elko, which includes the Pahrump campus, left 25 vacant positions unfilled, Rice said. The Pahrump campus only has three full-time instructors, a social services instructor position will be left vacant.

In addition, Rice said classified employees will be required to take one furlough day per month without pay -- a 4.6 percent pay cut -- but not the teachers.

The vice chancellor of GBC appointed a committee to determine some way for the professional staff and the teachers, to create parity with the classified employees who have to take the cut, Rice said. That committee will make recommendations to the Nevada Board of Regents at the June meeting.

GBC has the same number of students this spring as the year before, the equivalent of 190 full-time students, Rice said. But system wide, annual growth in the system has been about 8.5 percent while the legislature reduced the budget by 2.7 percent, from $17.77 million to $17.29 million.

"We're confident that we won't be needing to ask for early retirements from people or lay anyone off. We'll have to make a little bit more cuts in our operation which will be hard, maybe because we've already cut about as much as we can from operations. But it's manageable," Rice said.

The governor made the announcement this week he will veto the legislature's budget. But Rice said the legislature is expected to override the governor's veto. The budget passed the Assembly 29-13 and the Senate 17-4, more than the two-thirds vote required to override the governor's veto.

Students could face increased tuition next year, however, Rice said. It will be decided next month at the Board of Regents meeting.