Regents strengthen anti-nepotism rule

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2002 | 9:45 a.m.

Rules governing relatives working within the university system were slightly strengthened Wednesday while rules regulating the disclosure of student information remained the same.

The state Board of Regents voted unanimously at a meeting in North Las Vegas to fortify anti-nepotism bylaws by closing a loophole that allowed employees of the University and Community College System of Nevada to hire and supervise a relative.

But a regents' initiative to give students choices about who receives information about them failed in a 6-4 vote, with one abstention.

Tightening anti-nepotism rules came after University of Nevada, Las Vegas basketball coach Charlie Spoonhour's son Jay was hired as his assistant coach. The two have been working together for more than a year.

While UNLV officials have said that the athletic director does the hiring and that Jay Spoonhour does not report directly to his father, Regent Doug Hill said he did not believe that.

"The problem that I'm going to always have with this is that what we are saying is that the head coach doesn't hire the assistant coach," Hill said. "Now does anyone here really think that passes the smell test?"

The old policy only prevented the president of an institution from hiring relatives.

With the unanimous vote Wednesday, the new policy will apply to administrators, coaches and regents as well.

The new rule would apply to Regent Linda Howard, whose daughter works at the Community College of Southern Nevada. Howard and other regents now cannot help any relatives get a job.

A vote to bolster students' choices did not go as smoothly.

Universities and colleges now must disclose in the first five pages of their catalog or class schedule the fact that students' name, address, telephone number and other private information can be released by the college. Students are also told that if they don't want this information to be released, they may request it in writing.

Wednesday's proposal was to give students two boxes to check on a form. One would allow them to opt out of the release of all private information. The other box would allow them to opt out of only commercial information.

"I think you've done enough already to protect students," UNLV President Carol Harter said.

The motion to change the policy was split 6-5 with Regent Jill Derby abstaining.

UNLV makes about $100,000 annually as a result of releasing an alumni and student mailing list to credit card companies. CCSN's list brings the school about $16,000 annually, and UNR gets about $58,000 each year.

A bill drafted by Assemblywoman Bonnie Parnell, D-Reno, would prevent the release of those names for any commercial purpose.