Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Good dreams of better education shouldn’t be interrupted

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 3:56 a.m.

Few people love their profession enough to step down from a position of power to save the goals they were attempting to reach. That's exactly what Nevada State College President Richard Moore did this week. After being battered from all sides for more than a year, Moore determined that he, not the college, was the target of the naysayers. So he stepped down and offered to return to the classroom.

I'm not sure that this willingness to give up his position will stop attempts to derail the college. What has happened is the college opponents have found him to be an easy target to accomplish their ends. Moore, who thinks faster than most people and is unafraid to act on ideas he believes are good for education, will soon be replaced by someone or something as their new target.

Moore's critics may succeed to keep the college from moving forward, but that will only be a pause of months or years. The inability to meet the growing demand for teachers and nurses will continue to haunt us under the present system. This is just the nature of the beast and not a criticism of our major university.

Not only will the state college idea become a reality, it will also be in Nevada's second largest city, Henderson. Just a little more than 20 years ago a local daily newspaper declared that Henderson wasn't ready to have a community college. So much for that prediction.

Eight years ago Moore arrived on the scene as the new president of Community College of Southern Nevada. Attorney Joe Foley, then a regent, recalls that a large number of exceptional candidates sought the job. "Moore stood head and shoulders above all other candidates," Foley told me. At that time the job opening was considered both an opportunity to make educational progress and to make some dreams come true. During the next five years, before becoming the founding president of the state college, Moore made outstanding progress and helped many dreams come true.

It took him but five years to double the number of students from 16,000 to 35,000. Of special significance was the tripling of the number of African-American and Hispanic students. CCSN was finally meeting the needs of working people it was designed to educate.

Under Moore's leadership a new spirit of cooperation with Clark County Superintendent Brian Cram was developed. It was a partnership that a new school superintendent, Carlos Garcia, has promoted with Moore's replacement. Moving students easily from high school into CCSN, some with almost a year of college completed before high school graduation, became a reality. So has the development of high-tech centers on the campus of three local high schools.

Since then he has moved on to reach additional educational goals by being the founder of another needed level of higher education. Education, as seen by Moore, is to meet the needs of both individual students and the community.

Moore was on the move, and so was access to higher education in Nevada. Was he moving too fast? For some people he was way too fast and he refused to be placed in the box they have built for their view of education. Trouble was brewing and both the state college and Moore became easy targets for their enemies. Because he was willing to take chances, and work outside of their box, they chose him as the target of opportunity.

On a level playing field Moore would still be building the state college. He has learned that politics never provide a smooth road to success in achieving worthwhile goals. Now he will have an opportunity to see somebody else reach those goals. The foundation for educational progress in the form of a state college has already been built. Eventually it will become a reality no matter how much a few people attempt to keep it from helping more young people realize their dreams and fulfill the needs of Southern Nevada.