The UCCSN Board of Regents today approved two contracts that will move UNLV closer to providing access to dental care for thousands of under-served Nevadans through its School of Dentistry.

A six-month contract between the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (the culinary union) Welfare Fund and the Board of Regents will make it possible for the Dental School to serve 3,000 culinary union members, which in turn will bring the school more than $133,000 per month.

The culinary union is contracting with the School of Dentistry because it can provide a highvolume dental clinic to serve the union's members. That facility will be located on East Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas -- convenient to many culinary workers' homes -- and is the subject of the second contract.

The Board of Regents approved a one-year contract in which UNLV will lease the dental office and practice of Dr. Jim Bryan. Bryan will become a faculty member in the School of Dentistry and will be one of the faculty members who serve patients -- his existing patients as well as the culinary union members -- in what will become a 10-chair clinic.

"These contracts represent two sign)ficant steps in our effort to develop a revenue stream for the School of Dentistry," UNLV President Carol C. Harter said. "Because the school will be virtually self-supporting, it is critical that we find innovative means of generating the essential funding. The funds generated by the culinary union contract and from Dr. Bryan's patient base will generate substantial revenue in 2000."

The agreement with Dr. Bryan includes an option to buy his practice after the expiration of the lease.

"More pieces must be fit into the funding puzzle for the School of Dentistry, but we believe we have made a good start," Harter said. "We expect to be ready to admit the first class of dental students for fall semester 2001."