College system chief promises reform

Jennifer Knight

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 11:04 a.m.

RENO -- In the wake of an attorney general's report regarding questionable administrative tactics at the Community College of Southern Nevada, Chancellor Jane Nichols is promising reforms throughout the University and Community College System of Nevada.

Before the Board of Regents, which is holding a two-day meeting here, Nichols said Thursday that the university system has launched its own investigation into the use of bonus incentives that were paid out to select administrators at CCSN.

"I do think we have learned a great deal from this and it will change the way we do business," Nichols told the board, which is meeting at Truckee Meadows Community College.

Fast-paced growth coupled with poorly defined procedures were mostly to blame for problems documented in the attorney general's report last month, Nichols said.

During a surge of enrollment growth at CCSN, administrators under former president Richard Moore's leadership failed to follow standard procedures on things such as incentive bonuses and contract bids, according to the attorney general's report.

The report also documented the overuse of emergency hires and the furnishing of Moore's office with a $6,000 table complemented by chairs draped in imported Italian fabric.

Out of all of the issues raised in Thursday's meeting, however, the issue of bonus incentives is the most vexing to university system officials because there is no clear answer on what is right or wrong. The $26,000 in bonus money paid to administrators from a state tax fund is being reviewed by the Department of Education.

"It is by no means clear that the federal regulation was in violation," said Tom Ray, general counsel for the system. "We will investigate and report it to the U.S. Department of Education if there was a violation."

Concern over the bonus money stems from a federal regulation that bars recruiters from receiving incentive money from those efforts.

"If you go out and increase bonuses to receive students, that would increase the chances of fraudulent student aid," Ray said.

Nichols put a halt to such practices and has set in motion safeguards to close other loopholes in system policy.

For example, procedures that did not require contracts between $10,000 and $20,000 to go out to bid, will now be clarified under a revised policy.

The system is also addressing the issue of nepotism by requiring that job candidates to disclose if they have family members working at the institution where they are applying.

The school's union apprentice program will have a new set of contractual agreements that are more in keeping with how other schools set up their programs.

Lastly, eligibility for sabbatical programs will now be reviewed in light of counselor Vince Ricci's case, which is still under investigation by the attorney general's office.

The Board of Regents had its first opportunity to comment publicly on the attorney general's report since its release last month. Few of the 11 regents spoke positively about the report.

Regent Mark Alden led the charge against the attorney general's office saying that the report was "poorly crafted."

"I looked at what was going on here and there certainly wasn't any clear violation of the rules," said Regent Doug Hill.