Columnist Steve Carp: Silence isn’t so golden at UNLV

Steve Carp

Tuesday, April 21, 1998 | 8:34 a.m.

THERE ARE 16 official sports at UNLV and one that's unofficial.

You didn't know there was a shooting team on Maryland Parkway, did you?

That's right. They're mighty proficient when it comes to playing "Shoot The Messenger." When something comes out that puts the school's athletic department in a bad light, nobody looks in the mirror and says, "We're the problem" and goes about trying to fix it. Instead, they want to know "Who talked?" and proceed to find the culprit, then silence him or her.

It's a UNLV sport that has been around a long time. It was operating at full throttle last week when it was learned the athletic department needs to come up with three-quarters of a million dollars to balance its upcoming budget for 1998-99 just when the sordid details surrounding the hiring of new women's basketball coach Regina Miller began to surface.

When information on the budget became public in last Friday's SUN, UNLV felt compelled to issue a lame reply, even though athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro insisted there was no story to report on.

Never mind Cavagnaro's business manager, Tom Gabbard, had sent an official memo to all head coaches specifically saying there is a budget deficit. The memo, which ran with the story, is not a forged document. So who's telling the truth?

And that speaks to a bigger issue, which is free speech itself. As soon as the story broke, damage control kicked in. While Cavagnaro was trying to get the spin doctors in the ministry of sports propaganda to refute what was fact, associate AD Dave Chambers was on the phone to football coach Jeff Horton, accusing him of leaking the story.

Horton, to his credit, stood firm. He's not going to be intimidated by some administrator. He was speaking for himself. But he also was speaking for his colleagues, who knew that by speaking out, they put themselves and their programs at risk from retribution.

And that may be the scariest thing of all.

How can a person's First Amendment rights be squelched? And in an atmosphere of higher education, no less? How can this be tolerated when a coach can't speak his or her mind without fear of reprisal? What kind of message does that send to the student body and faculty?

UNLV is a public entity. Even most enterprises in the private sector would accord its employees their basic free speech rights. And dissent is one of our most cherished freedoms. When we see something we think is wrong, we're obligated to say so without the fear of being punished for it.

There is a genuine fear within the athletic department. Courage is in short supply these days, and with good reason. Courage doesn't put food on the table, gas in the tank or pay the rent. Nobody's going to talk and run the risk of getting terminated. Or having their lives made so miserable they'd quit before they could be fired.

Of course, it may only be a matter of Cavagnaro and Co. taking their lead from the top. The curious hiring of Miller to coach the Lady Rebels brought a firestorm of criticism. One faculty member was called on the carpet by none other than president Carol Harter herself, for writing a critical letter regarding Miller's hiring and having the audacity to distribute it publicly, including to members of the media.

So if Harter's going to get bent out of shape over a faculty member writing a letter, why wouldn't the athletic department go after a coach who attempts to speak their mind?

That has got to change immediately. Morale is drastically low. When only one or two coaches are willing to speak out, that's a dangerous situation.

Right now, free speech at UNLV is on par with Berlin in 1938.