CCSN faculty berates regents

Jennifer Knight

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 10:50 a.m.

In an emergency meeting Monday, the Community College of Southern Nevada's Faculty Senate unanimously voted to ask the state Board of Regents to rescind a vote that ousted President Ron Remington.

More than 100 employees showed up for the meeting at CCSN's West Charleston campus Monday night to voice their concern that there was a "lack of due process" for Remington and his adviser, John Cummings, who was also removed and faces the loss of his tenured position as professor.

The Senate also voted to ask the board to reveal the contents of the investigation.

"An injustice to one is an injustice to all," said business professor Glynda White to a roomful of applause.

Remington and Cummings were ousted from their posts as the regents capped an investigation into the hiring, firing and reinstatement of Topazia "Briget" Jones, a woman who described herself as the "special assistant" to Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-North Las Vegas.

Williams had asked college officials if they could find a job for her. She worked for Cummings, the college's lobbyist, in Carson City during the 2003 Legislature, college officials have said.

Regents and college officials haven't said much about the votes to oust Remington and Cummings, saying it was a personnel decision.

One professor said he didn't know what to tell students about the removal of their president.

"I stood in the classroom this morning and I faced my students, and my students were bewildered at what is going on," Tom Jackson, a business professor, said. "I had no answers for them."

On the same day, Jane Nichols, chancellor of the University and Community College System, named Thomas Brown, provost for CCSN's Cheyenne campus, as interim acting president.

According to college documents, Brown "facilitated the job application" of Jones. After her firing, her complaints led to a 1,000-page investigative report. College officials who fired Jones said she did not work full days and did not do her job.

The regents took a vote on removing her from her job, but the vote failed.

Brown's first job was to let Cummings know he was removed from his position. The regents can't directly fire but do so through top university officials.

Mitzi Ware, Faculty Senate chairwoman, said Brown was their top pick "because he knows faculty issues."

"He knows the faculty," Ware said. "We'll only have him for three weeks, but he shares our thoughts and feelings."

Brown will serve until an acting president is named.

Faculty members expressed dismay, shock and disappointment at Monday's meeting. Several faculty members said it resulted in a lack of confidence in the board's ability to govern. Others were just plain suspicious of the board's motives.

"The regents' action has created a wall of suspicion of what they are up to and what is going on," Dale Etheridge, a physical science professor, said. "Having created this wall of suspicion, I am not prepared to accept the Board of Regents as my governing board until they bring down that wall."

Dick McGee, a performing arts professor, said he thought the "whole thing ... was orchestrated."

"There's more to this than we'll ever know," McGee said. "There are more sinister things at work here."

Fred Conquest, a human behavior instructor, called for Nichols' removal.

"We are not going to sit by and be railroaded by people who do not have our best interest at heart," Conquest said.

Debra Solt, who is the acting director of extended programs, and once Jones' supervisor, expressed regret over attempting to fire her.

"I am the person who recommended the termination of Topazia Jones," Solt said. "But if I would have known it would have turned out to be the termination of our president, I don't know if I would have done that."

Solt said she, like other key people, was never asked to be part of the investigation, even though the investigation stemmed from her firing of Jones.

"I thought if you follow protocol and did your job, that would be enough," Solt said. "This was simply the right decision to terminate a bad employee."

Remington issued a message to faculty saying, "The actions of the governing board should be offensive to us all. There is no dishonor or 'demotion' in being part of an academic community. There is dishonor, however, in the abuse of power."

Cummings, who was at the meeting, chose not to speak to the group but summed up the sentiment in the room.

"I think it goes beyond a matter of lack of confidence," Cummings said. "It goes to what my colleagues stand for, and that is the right for people to face their accuser and confront the evidence that could and did in this case result in the loss of one's livelihood."

Patriotic talk about the tenets of American justice arose at the meeting.

Bob Gilbert, director of planning, design and construction, said some of the war veterans on the board, such as Regents Tom Kirkpatrick and Jack Lund Schofield, should have understood that point more than anyone.

"We have individuals on the board who are veterans," Gilbert said. "I find it appalling that those same people fought for the Constitution and ignored it."

State Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, issued a scathing letter to the regents.

"My impression of the action is akin to that of a grand jury led by zealous prosecutors to indicting someone," Coffin said. "But even grand juries invite 'targets' into their proceedings, and if indicted, those targets are entitled to due process through trial."

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, who was recommended for termination from her job as spokeswoman for the college, said regents went after her because of legislation she introduced to do away with an elected board.

"They discussed my legislation in closed session," Giunchigliani said. "As far as I'm concerned, they just justified my legislation."

Joan McGee, CCSN's former Faculty Senate chairwoman, left the faculty with parting words from Remington.

"Before I left he said to me, 'Tell them something for me. It's just six words -- tell them to be very afraid.' "