N.Y. woman to take college job

Tuesday, June 22, 1999 | 9:44 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- Carol Lucey, vice president for academic affairs at Alfred State College of Technology in New York, is going to accept the presidency of the Western Nevada Community College in Carson City, even if her husband has not been guaranteed a job in the system.

Jill Derby, chairwoman of the board of regents of the University and Community System of Nevada, said Monday Lucey will start in early August in the $130,000-a-year job.

Derby said Lucey's husband, Ken, will take a leave of absence from his job as professor of philosophy at State University of New York to accompany his wife to Carson City.

"We're just going to have to double our efforts" at finding a job for him, the chairwoman said.

The regents split last Thursday over whether to dip into its reserve fund to pay half of the salary for two years for Ken Lucey for a job that would be created at the University of Nevada, Reno. UNR President Joe Crowley said his school doesn't have the money for a new unfunded position.

Ken Lucey is "a fine man, a good professor and philosopher," Crowley said, "but the regents must decide when negotiating with candidates if they want to throw in extra money."

The regents are expected to again discuss the proposed Professional Partners Program in September. It would apply when recruiting presidents of the seven campuses. Backers say in many cases both the candidate and the spouse are in college programs and a support program would help attract good candidates.

But other regents questioned whether the university would help spouses only if they were in education. They wondered what would the regents do if the spouse was in another profession.