Support for Silverman mounts as regents search for new CCSN president

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, Aug. 18, 2000 | 11:37 a.m.

One day after the Board of Regents announced they would hold a special meeting to reconsider Robert Silverman, interim president of Community College of Southern Nevada, for a shot at the permanent post, he is getting more support from faculty and staff.

A petition, which was initiated Monday, commends Silverman for his leadership and urges regents to give him additional consideration.

"Bob Silverman kept this place from totally blowing apart during Richard Moore's tenure," said Bill Jenkins, the chairman of the Computers, Information and Technology Department at the West Charleston campus of CCSN and the source of the petition.

"(Former president) Richard Moore would make extremely uninformed decisions at the drop of a hat. He loves chaos. And that's not slanderous. He'll tell you that himself. But Bob Silverman would go behind him and pick up the pieces," Jenkins said.

Tom Lisa, a technology instructor at the Cheyenne campus of the college, said, "If (Silverman) was good enough to be interim, he should be good enough to be considered for president. Otherwise he should have been called the caretaker. He's at the college 24-7."

Both instructors stressed, however, that they are not suggesting to regents that Silverman should be the de facto choice for president, just that he has earned the right to be interviewed.

Silverman took over as interim president in January when Moore was appointed president of the proposed state college in Henderson. Silverman had served four years as the vice president of academic affairs.

"With the public outcry, it's no surprise," said Regent Douglas Seastrand, the chairman of the 19-member search committee, when told of the petition.

"(Silverman) has done a good job. But that's not the reason we're doing it. The reason we're (reconsidering his application) is the regents have shown an interest.

"And I think this is an important point: It's not a question of whether Bob Silverman is a fine individual or has done good as the interim president. It's a question of who's going to be the best fit for the future of the community college."

Seastrand decided to hold the special meeting to reconsider Silverman's candidacy on Aug. 25.

The search committee dropped Silverman when it cut the pool from 13 to six candidates on August 5.

Candidates will interview in Las Vegas the weeks of Sept. 18 and 25.

Jenkins plans to present his petition to the search committee at the meeting Aug. 25. He declined to say how many signatures he had collected.

Autumn Ita, an administrator at the A.D. Guy Center in West Las Vegas, said she will help. An employee of the community college for 27 years, Ita says she has "been through every president."

"We have calm now, peace," she said. "He has been an excellent leader. Not flamboyant like the other presidents. Dr. Silverman brings things together."