Seastrand responds to Howard allegations

Jennifer Knight

Friday, Dec. 20, 2002 | 11:22 a.m.

Board of Regents Chairman Doug Seastrand issued a sternly worded memo Thursday in response to allegations made by Regent Linda Howard that two former regents and one current regent were involved in improper business dealings.

Howard, in an e-mail sent out Sunday, suggested that Regent Steve Sisolak and former Regent Dorothy Gallagher and the late Tom Wiesner improperly benefited due to their positions on the board.

In his memo, Seastrand emphatically stated his position that Howard's allegations had no basis in fact.

"In (Howard's) correspondence, she makes serious allegations against present and former regents," Seastrand told the university's board of regents in the memo. "Because of the serious implications of these allegations and because the public may contact you about these matters, I felt compelled to issue this memo."

In her e-mail, Howard suggested that:

Seastrand responded point-by-point in his memo:

In fact, Howard's charges prompted Wiesner's son, Kurt Wiesner, to write a letter to the board in defense of his father, who died in June after a battle with leukemia.

In the letter, Kurt Wiesner wrote that Big Dog's actually lost money on the UNLV-related functions it hosted.

He also criticized the personal bickering the Board of Regents has engaged in recently.

"Every day, I was appalled and imagined how embarrassed and disappointed my father would be regarding the ongoing soap opera the regents are now allowing to divert themselves from their elected duties," Kurt Wiesner wrote.

"I want to defend my father and point out that he is one of the greatest friends UNLV ever had for its athletic program."

Howard could not immediately be reached for comment on Seastrand's memo and Kurt Wiesner's letter.

Seastrand's memo also responded to Howard's charge that Sisolak had a class at the Community College of Southern Nevada abolished due to a personal conflict with the instructor.

Seastrand said there was no wrongdoing in the incident, which concerned a class on flirting.

"Sisolak received several complaints that the instructor's class was being held at a bar. Regent Sisolak suggested the class be moved to a more appropriate location. That is what occurred," Seastrand wrote.

The Board of Regents -- which oversees higher education in Nevada -- has been mired in a series of controversies over the past several months.

Howard was under fire for allegedly abusing her power by obtaining information from a personnel file and for viewing thousands of private students records. In another incident, Regent Mark Alden called Howard an "orangutan" on a Las Vegas radio show. Howard is the board's only black member. Alden later apologized.

Last week, the board issued a blanket apology for its various misdeeds.

But sparks flew again when Howard subsequently said she has nothing to apologize for, and in fact should have "a whole lot more apologies" coming to her.

The behavior of the regents has drawn criticism from the board's own members as well as from academics within the university system.