The Nevada State Capitol building
Isaac Hoops/Nevada Sagebrush
The State Capitol building as it stands on Saturday, Feb. 22. President Marc Johnson discussed the university’s relationship with the governor’s office and state and federal funding.

In an interview on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019, the Nevada Sagebrush asked President Johnson his thoughts on the Governor’s office and the relationship between the university and the state.

Governor’s Office

President Marc Johnson said the university has a positive relationship with the governor’s office. He said they don’t regularly meet but have cordial conversations with one another.

“It’s a very important relationship because the Governor supports the university,” President Johnson said. “In fact the day of the explosions, I got a call from the governor and he expressed his willingness to help in any way he could.”

He believes it is good to have a conversational relationship for operational matters. He also believes it is important to have a good relationship so the Governor understands the nature of the university’s operations regarding budgeting.

State Funding

President Johnson confirmed the university receives state funds through the ‘funding formula.’

“Back in 2013, there was a new funding formula for higher education and we get state money based on weighted student credit hours generated,” President Johnson said. “When students finish a class, we get that class counted for the number of credit hours and their weighted by how complex and how costly that class is.”

He confirmed the more classes students take and the more classes they finish will generate more funds for the university in future years.

President Johnson said they do not receive much federal funds for operations of the university but receive a lot of federal funding for student financial aid and loans.

“Those are based on either the grant that we write for scholarship programs or the FAFSA reports that go in and we get an evaluation on how much federal funding should go into lower income students,” President Johnson said. “We get a lot of federal grants through our competitive research grants.”

He said the university competes well for those funds.

Taylor Johnson can be reached at tkjohnson@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @taylorkendyll.