Regents’ panel recommends added powers for chancellor

Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004 | 8:59 a.m.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers may soon have the power to discipline college presidents, a tool he says is desperately needed in his executive position.

The Boards of Regents board development committee voted 4-1 to recommend a change to the university system's bylaws that would give Rogers or his successor the power to discipline or even fire presidents.

If approved by the full board, the change calls for the chancellor to use progressive discipline against a president, including written warning and reprimands, before firing the president. It also enumerates the specific causes for which a president may be disciplined, including incompetence, insubordination, criminal conviction, or falsifying employment documents.

The committee's recommendation also gives the chancellor the authority to fire a president immediately in "cases of serious violations" and there is no process to appeal. What constitutes a serious violation is not defined in the proposal.

The recommendation does require the chancellor to report his decisions to discipline a president to the Board of Regents, but it does not require the board's consent. Regents would still hold the authority to fire presidents at-will.

Voting for the proposal were Regents Thalia Dondero, Bret Whipple, Jill Derby and Jack Lund Schofield.

"I believe the chancellor needs some teeth so that we don't go through what we went through before," Schofield said, referring indirectly to an incident last November in which the board came under fire for removing the president of the Community College of Southern Nevada. "If there is some corruption going on there or whatever, he can stop it. That's what we hired him for."

Regent Howard Rosenberg voted against the proposal because he said the board should retain full authority to fire presidents.

Because it is a change to the system's by-laws, the Board of Regents will only be able to debate the proposal at Friday's meeting at UNLV's Foundation Room, chief general counsel Daniel Klaich said. The item would then come up for a vote at the February meeting of the board.

Also, because the proposal requires changes to a president's contract, it would only be instituted as those contracts come up for renewal, Klaich said. UNLV President Carol Harter already agreed to a similar contract in October, and two other presidents are scheduled to have their contracts renewed at Friday's meeting.