Regents unsure if they can lend hand

Steve Carp

Friday, June 12, 1998 | 9:01 a.m.

The community activists who are seeking action from the Board of Regents about the handling of the chancellor's office independent investigation of UNLV athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro may or may not get their wish.

Cavagnaro was cleared of any alleged wrongdoing by president Dr. Carol Harter on May 29 after a three-week investigation in May. The probe, prompted by charges Cavagnaro made racial and sexist remarks about UNLV student-athletes, failed to produce enough substantial evidence that Cavagnaro made the remarks, according to Harter.

However, Harter has refused to publicly disclose the findings of the investigation, citing the case as a personnel matter.

The heads of the local chapters of the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women have not found Harter's decision or motives acceptable, and are hoping for action to be taken at next week's regents meeting in Reno.

But several regents aren't sure if they can legally get involved.

"The issue is balancing an employee's confidential personnel record and the public's right to know," Las Vegas regent Shelley Berkley said. "At this time, the regents have been provided no information regarding this incident."

Las Vegas regent Tom Wiesner said he isn't sure what the board can do.

"As I understand it, this is a personnel matter under Dr. Harter," he said. "I don't think there should be a public hearing. But if the other regents want to discuss this, I'd be willing to take part."

Nevada State Assemblyman Wendell Williams (D-Las Vegas), who attended Wednesday's 90-minute meeting with Cavagnaro's attorney David Chesnoff and other community leaders, said he was looking into the legal aspects as they apply to the regents.

"Obviously, the directive the regents gave Dr. Harter in providing a venue for those to come forward was not done," Williams said. "The regents themselves don't know what was presented in that report. So I think the regents bear a tremendous amount of responsibility in establishing a framework that will prevent this from happening again.

"Obviously, (if) something of this magnitude happens, we should have this information."

Berkley agreed with Williams, to a point.

"I would urge President Harter to re-assess how this situation was handled and make every effort to reach out to the public so UNLV can deal effectively with this issue and move forward," she said.

"It is my understanding that Charlie Cavagnaro has an unblemished record when it comes to diversity issues. It is also my understanding that during the investigation that no one was willing to come forward publicly and make an accusation."

Las Vegas regent Maddy Graves said that unless someone is willing to come forward and speak on the record regarding Cavagnaro, the matter should be dropped.

"At this point, this isn't a regents matter, it's a personnel matter," Graves said. "We don't have access to these records and nobody should. It is strictly Dr. Harter's call.

"All we have right now are a lot of anonymous sources and nothing's corroborated. But the whole thing changes if someone steps forward and goes public and can prove Charlie said these things.

"Frankly, the whole thing is a sham and shouldn't be played up in the press."

Gary Peck, head of the local chapter of the ACLU, doesn't see it that way.

"They have a responsibility to ... ensure that our public institutions of higher learning are places where everyone can feel welcome and comfortable, and that the leaders inspire the public's confidence," Peck said of the regents.

"Anything less would be an abdication of that responsibility. And that abdication is not only unfair to the public, it is unfair to Charlie Cavagnaro, whose guilt or innocence remains a matter of widespread speculation."