Rogers revokes $25 million gift to UNLV

Thursday, Aug. 19, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers is so frustrated with the higher education system he volunteered to run that he's withdrawing a $25 million gift he considered giving to UNLV, university and system officials said Wednesday.

"He doesn't make gifts," Regent Steve Sisolak said, recounting what Rogers told him. "He makes investments in the institutions and the students that they service. And the way the board is functioning right now we are not a good investment."

Rogers would only confirm that he and his wife, Beverly, had decided not to go through with the second gift to UNLV on Wednesday afternoon, saying that the reasons behind that decision were his "private business."

But Sisolak, Regent Bret Whipple and Boyd School of Law Dean Richard Morgan, who were all at the same meeting with Rogers when he told them he had withdrawn the gift, confirmed that Rogers' frustrations with the system led him to decide against the pledge.

Rogers said he is frustrated with a system filled with dysfunction and inefficiency, they said.

And Rogers expressed those frustrations during a taping of "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" on Wednesday morning.

In the interview, which airs today on Las Vegas ONE, Cox cable channels 1 and 19, Rogers detailed the culture clash he says he has experienced as a businessman dictator dealing with the messy democracy of the higher education system's Board of Regents.

Rogers said he is used to making decisions and getting things done quickly, while many of the regents want to consider things for a long time before acting.

"Going from a dictatorship to a democracy ... it's tough on everybody," Rogers said. "It's tough on me. It's tough on them."

Rogers came under fire on Monday after he made what some regents called a dictatorial decision to sign a $400,000 settlement agreement for demoted Community College of Southern Nevada President Ron Remington on his own, against the majority opinion of the regents. Rogers had the authority to do so under board guidelines, system lawyers said.

Rogers said the settlements with Remington and CCSN lobbyist John Cummings were constant "distractions" and that the open-meeting law issues that have continued to arise are the "nightmare of all time," forcing him to spend much of his time acting as the Board of Regents' attorney instead of their chancellor.

"I didn't come to do law 50 percent of the time," Rogers said. "I wanted to put efficiencies in the system."

The divisive regents, the clashing cultures and the 14-hour-days he's put in seven-days-a-week as chancellor are wearing thin on him, the 65-year-old Rogers said, causing him to question how much longer he and the regents "can continue to live together."

Rogers has repeatedly said he won't quit, but the withdrawal of his gift is evidence that he's nearing the end of his rope, regents said.

Rogers, owner of Sunbelt Communications Co., parent company of KVBC Channel 3, had promised the $25 million as part of a capital campaign he was leading with Boyd Gaming Corp. President Don Snyder, but the gift was contingent on the UNLV Foundation's ability to provide matching donors from a select list.

Rogers said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon that he had not made any direct pledge to donate the money.

"We were considering another pledge, and that was it," Rogers said.

But he told Morgan, Sisolak and Whipple that he was withdrawing the gift out of a concern that the university "system was not functioning in a unified and efficient way," Morgan said.

Sisolak and Whipple confirmed the same but said they could not elaborate beyond that.

"He's frustrated," Whipple said, agreeing with Rogers' description of a culture clash between him and the elected Board of Regents.

"He does come from a culture where there are unilateral decisions," Whipple said. "Democracy is not based on unilateral decisions, it is based on compromise ... in a democracy you have to work together to come to the common good."

At the same time, both Whipple and Sisolak said they believed Rogers' leadership style is a positive for the system, and both wanted to see him succeed.

Sisolak likened Rogers to a chief executive officer coming in to a downward-spiraling company and trying to turn it around.

"I think that's what he's trying to do with the board," Sisolak said. "He's trying to turn it around so it is a good investment again. Not only for him but for other people."

UNLV President Carol Harter, through spokeswoman Hilarie Grey, declined to comment on Rogers' decision because state law demands that donor information remain confidential unless the university has the express permission of the donor to release it.

Rogers' $29 million pledge to the UNLV Boyd Law School made in 1998 gives the school an increasing amount of money each year, Morgan said. The school is currently receiving $375,000 annually and would reach a peak of $750,000 a year after 20 years.

The annual payment will continue until Rogers' death and his survivors sell Channel 3, Morgan said. At that time, the school will receive a $20 million endowment.

If Channel 3 is not sold, the school will continue to receive annual payments.

Rogers has donated $200 million to higher education across the country.

"Jim's been very generous," Morgan said. "His philanthropy has been terrific and he's been a great supporter of the law school."