Reduced number of regents advances

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, April 10, 2003 | 9:02 a.m.

The Assembly Education Committee cleared the way for some substantial changes to higher education Wednesday by voting to reduce the size of the Board of Regents, stop the release of student information without prior permission and ease the path for the Community College of Southern Nevada to grant four-year degrees.

Those changes, which were rolled into two separate bills, generated some controversy with the way they were originally written, but watered-down versions passed Wednesday with little opposition.

Assembly Bill 511 originally called for CCSN's Cheyenne and Charleston campuses to add four-year programs in nursing and teaching -- the same areas in which the struggling Nevada State College at Henderson specializes.

Several members within the university system criticized the bill because it usurped the authority of the Board of Regents to create such programs. But language in Wednesday's version was toned down and now allocates $800,000 to the community college to lay the foundation for such programs.

"This would not mean that they would immediately start, but would allow them the parameters, at least at the state level, to do so," said Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-North Las Vegas, who presented the bill.

The bill passed unanimously and will now go to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee for approval.

The other bill, Assembly Bill 353, proposes to reduce the Board of Regents from 13 members to nine.

That bill originally called for a seven-member board that would have four-year terms. Its latest incarnation would reduce the size to nine and allow regents to stay in office for six years, which is the current structure.

"I know everyone will laugh but size does matter," said Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, who sponsored the bill. "I think as the board has become more large, it has allowed itself to become more politically contentious."

AB353 also contained the issue of student privacy. University system institutions that were allowed to sell student information to credit companies would no longer be able to do so without the permission of the student.

That bill will now go to the full Legislature for approval.