Thursday, Aug. 19, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.
The new CCSN president, who blasted the campus for cronyism in a memo Tuesday, is now facing the same criticism.
Faculty members have complained that Richard Carpenter, president of the Community College of Southern Nevada, didn't practice what he preached, bringing a special assistant with him to the post he assumed two weeks ago, CCSN Faculty Senate Chairwoman Ann Johnson and Regent Linda Howard said Wednesday.
"I have had faculty members already call me up to complain about rules set out by the new president and that he was the first one to break the rules by creating a new position and filling that position with someone when no search had taken place," Howard said.
"If it's not (cronyism), it appears to be, and perception becomes real. Perception is everything."
But Carpenter, backed by the university system's interim chancellor, Jim Rogers, defended his appointment of Rand Key as his special assistant and director of internal communication.
Key served as Carpenter's executive vice president during his two-year term as president of the Wisconsin Technical College System, Carpenter said, and before that was an administrator and adjunct economics professor under him at Calhoun Community College in Alabama.
"I just needed someone in there the day I got here that I knew and I could trust," Carpenter said.
Carpenter said he saw a strong contrast between the cronyism he outlined in his memo, where the "good old boy" network hired and promoted their friends without consideration of their qualifications, and his decision to bring Key to the college. Carpenter said it is typical for new presidents to bring some personnel they know will work well for them.
"I think the case would be stronger for a complaint if six months from now or even today you saw me bring a person in here waiving the search process," Carpenter said, adding that there are national searches going on for all of the open vice president positions.
Key himself defended his role at the college, noting his qualifications for the $109,000-a-year job and his long-standing working relationship with Carpenter. Key has a master's degree in business administration, a master's degree in education and a law degree.
Rogers agreed, calling the complaint against Carpenter "bull."
"That's not cronyism," Rogers said. "Cronyism is when you hire somebody only if they are your friend. You can hire a friend only if they are absolutely competent."
When Rogers volunteered to serve as interim chancellor, he had it written into his employment contract that he could bring his own personal attorney and administrative assistant along with him. A month later, he created the position of assistant chancellor and appointed University of Nevada School of Medicine professor Dr. Trudy Larson without a search.
That move was approved by the regents at their June meeting but did raise faculty concern, Howard said.
Most regents, however, said the complaint against Carpenter was a "red herring" in that the cronyism Carpenter pointed out at the college was deep and corrupt, with several administrators creating jobs for their friends and families.
"One of the vice presidents had 14 relatives on the payroll -- that's the kind of crap you had out there," Kirkpatrick said.
Regent Mark Alden agreed, adding that he thinks Carpenter did the right thing in bringing someone he knew with him to what is sure to be a challenging job.
"What would you do if you went into a cesspool?" Alden said. "Wouldn't you want somebody you can trust?"
Both cronyism and nepotism have a negative sound because they imply that the friend or relative who was hired was not qualified, said Ann McGinley, a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Boyd School of Law and an expert in employment law.
But that's not always the case, McGinley said.
"If you bring somebody that you know is a really good employee, and that person is as qualified or better qualified, I don't consider anything wrong with that legally, ethically or morally," said McGinley, whose husband was recruited with her to UNLV.
There are no federal laws against nepotism or cronyism, but if a whole college consistently hires only people they know or who are like them, "they might end up with a bunch of white guys," McGinley said. The college can then be sued for violating federal anti-discrimination laws.
State law prohibits employees of state agencies such as CCSN from having direct supervision of a relative, Tom Sargent, spokesman for the attorney general's office said. Board of Regents policy further bans employees from taking part in decisions regarding that relative's hiring, reappointment, placement, evaluation, pay, salary increases, promotion, tenure, monetary awards or other personal interest, according to the system's handbook. Sargent said he could not find any rules specifically prohibiting cronyism.
The lack of minorities at CCSN is one of the major hiring issues, several community college faculty said.
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