Vice chancellor touted for interim college post

Jennifer Knight

Tuesday, March 5, 2002 | 10:41 a.m.

An administrator for the university system has emerged as the only candidate recommended for interim president of the Nevada State College at Henderson.

The Board of Regents will vote Thursday on a replacement for Richard Moore, who resigned last week as president of the state college.

Chris Chairsell, associate vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the University and Community College System of Nevada, is being recommended for the post.

Chairsell would still receive her current salary of $114,000 a year, plus an undetermined amount of money to be funded by private donations.

Chancellor Jane Nichols said today she was confident the board would approve Chairsell, citing her long record as an administrator.

"I think she will do very well," Nichols said. "She is highly regarded and she's done good work for the board."

But like anything connected with the state college, Chairsell is being looked at closely by the college's critics. For example, it was expected that state resources would not be used on the state college, yet loaning Chairsell from the university system to the college for six months would transfer her state-funded pay to the new institution.

"I was promised that we weren't going to commit state resources, now they're telling me we are," Regent Steve Sisolak said.

Chairsell served under Moore while he was president of the Community College of Southern Nevada. She began as an adjunct faculty member and quickly rose through the ranks as dean, then provost and finally an interim associate vice president before taking her current position.

Chairsell also recently received her doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

While at CCSN, Chairsell was also among a handful of staffers who nabbed large pay hikes. Within a four-year period from 1995 to 1999, her pay went from $65,000 to $90,000 a year.

Those issues are expected to be broached at the regents' meeting in Reno.

Chairsell said she "stands on her academic record" and has worked hard during her 16 years in the system.

If appointed by the 11-member Board of Regents on Thursday, Chairsell said she would stick to the Sept. 3 opening for the college, which will be housed in a renovated vitamin factory off U.S. 95 near Wagon Wheel Drive.