Meyer named new interim CCSN chief

Jennifer Knight

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 11:11 a.m.

Despite a vote of no confidence from faculty members at Community College of Southern Nevada, the Board of Regents approved athletic director Mike Meyer as the new interim president on Thursday.

The 6-5 decision in favor of Meyer came sooner than expected after the issue was moved up on the schedule.

Regent Tom Wiesner interjected a motion to approve Meyer before Board of Regents Chairwoman Thalia Dondero's recommendation to pick David Hoggard Jr. could go to a vote.

Regent Mark Alden quickly seconded the motion, flaunting traditional procedures that usually follow the chairwoman's recommendation.

"They clearly didn't follow procedure, which is nothing unusual," said Fred Jackson, CCSN's faculty senate chair. "They just didn't support what we felt were critical credential issues. It just makes it difficult to view the board as a system of shared governance."

Regents Linda Howard, Jill Derby, Tom Kirkpatrick, Howard Rosenberg and Dondero dissented, citing Meyer's inexperience in academic administration.

Meyer has a bachelor's degree in recreational administration but lacks a higher degree. He is, however, well connected in the community because of his fund-raising activities.

The 58-year-old Meyer grew up in San Francisco, where he was a Boys and Girls Club member. He later became an all-American football player and parlayed his sports experience into a career. After receiving a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State University, he moved to Nevada.

When Meyer became the head of the Las Vegas Boys and Girls Club in 1969, the organization had an annual operating budget of $15,000. By 1999, the club had grown under his tenure from a staff of three to 140 employees with an operating budget of $3 million.

Meyer was in the news last year after he was dragged into Las Vegas Councilman Michael McDonald's ethics probe. Meyer and McDonald sat on the board of Youth Charities, a nonprofit organization that helped needy kids. Although Meyer knew McDonald, the probe never implicated him in any wrongdoing.

Wiesner, who is a long-time acquaintance of Meyer and is listed on his resume as a reference, defended Meyer's lack of a graduate degree.

"People get educated lots of times from the school of reality, rather than going to school."

Wiesner also admitted he had not considered any other candidate when weighing his decision.

"No one even told me about Hoggard," Wiesner said.

Meyer won the job over Hoggard, who has a master's degree in counseling and was CCSN's interim president in 1994. Hoggard has a long history in the community, starting with his mother who was the first black teacher in Nevada.

Waiting in his office at CCSN for word of the vote, Meyer said he felt his degree was not an issue, citing his many years of business experience running the Las Vegas Boys & Girls Clubs.

"I'm very happy with my degree. I've never had any intention of being president of a college. As interim, I don't think (a graduate degree) is necessary."

Meyer had lobbied for the job, according to several regents, a charge he denied.

"I've said that I would not go for the job if they had a qualified candidate they were happy with," Meyer said.

Yet, he didn't bow out after learning that Hoggard was the lead man for the job, saying, "I've never quit anything in my life."

Regents reiterated that they will continue the search for a president and approved a motion Thursday to spend up to $45,000 on a private search firm to do so.

The appointment of a permanent president at CCSN is still on hold until the Nevada Supreme Court renders a decision on whether a president is a public official or not-- a case that was brought before the court in a suit filed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

If justices uphold a lower court's decision for the plaintiff, the search for a president may have to start over again.

Four candidates are still waiting in the wings for word of the decision, one that Chancellor Jane Nichols said is due any day now.

Board approved standards for a permanent president require a Ph.D. and at least seven years of experience in the delivery of academic services, guidelines the regents said they would stick to.

The presidential search committee will meet on March 9 to decide whether they will pull from the old pool of applicants or not.