RENO, Nev. – The University of Nevada, Reno marching band and supporters are refusing to yield to budget cuts that threaten the band's existence.

More than 100 band members, alumni and supporters held a campus rally Wednesday before a meeting with UNR President Milton Glick, who said the band and the university's oral history program will not remain in their present form.

The group also protested the firing of the band program's assistant director.

A petition to reverse that plan was circulated, and some members said they would be willing to give up their band scholarships to save the program. Others urged corporate sponsors to step forward and save the band.

Glick, speaking to hundreds of faculty, students and staff, remarked that the band, known as the “Pride of the Sierra,” played the university's alma mater “quite movingly as I walked by.”

But emotions aside, he said the band and the school's oral history program will not remain in their present forms.

“So we will have to reconfigure and maintain (the band) in a different form at a lower cost. Is it important?” he said of the band. “Yes. Is it as important as getting into the English class you need? No.”

He added, “We decided to look at not having the Oral History Program in its present form. That doesn't mean we won't be doing oral history.”

The university last week sent notices of termination effective July 1, 2009, to 32 administrative faculty and four academic faculty, only one who is teaching.

Glick said offers of buyouts were sent Wednesday to faculty and staff based on their ages and years of service.

The university weathered a 4.5 percent governor-mandated cut that took $8.4 million from the 2007-08 budget, but Glick said additional state reductions “will change this university” and result in cutting programs.

In 2008-09, UNR faced a state funding shortfall of $16.5 million, but by deferring one-time expenditures and other measures, has been able to reduce that to $10 million in cuts still to be made.

But Glick said he's fearful of the impact Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed statewide 14.12 percent cuts will have on higher education in 2009-10. That would mean $31.2 million less for UNR, but the 36 faculty members who will lose their jobs next year will result in a savings of $3.7 million.

Add that to another $6 million the university recovered when faculty agreed to defer merit raises and from revenue when students supported an additional $5 per credit fee surcharge, and the $31.2 million shortfall for 2009-10 has dropped to $21 million, Glick said.

Over the next six weeks, Glick said administrators and faculty will be looking at academic programs that could be reduced or eliminated in 2009-10.

“We will not be making decisions, but we will be looking at whether we can find alternative funding for some programs, downsize them or are they ones we should phase out,” said Glick.

Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, www.rgj.com