Nevada colleges feel economic pinch - JERRY HENKEL, LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Enrollment is down at almost all of the state's colleges and universities. At UNLV, graduate student enrollment accounted for most of the decline. Michael Gordon, president of the graduate and professional student association, said tuition increases worry students. Nevada has almost 10,000 fewer college students this fall than it did last fall, a drop officials said was a result of the bad economy in one way or another. The recession, budget cuts and tuition hikes get the blame. Overall, according to preliminary fall 2011 enrollment numbers from the Nevada System of Higher Education, the system's enrollment dropped 8.2 percent to 105,428, the lowest number since 2006. UNLV dropped 4.4 percent, to its lowest level since 2003, while the University of Nevada, Reno saw a small increase, about 500 students, less than 2 percent.