Regents plan to resolve their conflicts

Monday, Feb. 23, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.

University regents will work on handling board conflict and developing positive group dynamics at a workshop in May, regent Thalia Dondero said Friday.

Dondero, who heads a committee on board development, said the workshop/retreat may also include a session on the finer points of the state's open-meeting law with someone from the attorney general's office, system attorneys and possibly other experts.

"I think it's very important to the board as a whole to be able to discuss ethics, the open-meeting law," Dondero said. "We have a lot of issues we need to discuss."

The Board of Regents, which oversees the University and Community College System of Nevada, has been under fire since November for alleged open-meeting law violations during two closed personnel sessions that led to the removal of two community college officials.

More recently, critics have attacked the board over a discrepancy between board policy and state law regarding defining residency. Before being corrected in January, board policy said students must live in Nevada for one year prior to beginning classes to receive state tuition; state law only required six months.

The board has also suffered from internal conflict, with at least two regents angrily leaving at times during the January board meeting. Other regents have complained about communication problems between the board, the system office and the different institutions. And one of the regents biggest critics has been one of its own members: Regent Mark Alden. He has filed five complaints with the attorney general's office against the board alleging open-meeting law violations.

Another outspoken critic of the board is businessman Stephen Cloobeck. "Right now it is out of whack," he said.

Cloobeck, who helped bring the residency discrepancy to the board's attention, vowed to campaign against several regents who are up for re-election. He said he will be working to defeat the regents who voted against issuing retroactive reimbursements for students who were wrongly charged out-of-state tuition. Cloobeck has also threatened to recall those regents not up for election, and is part of a larger campaign to reduce the board down to nine regents -- three elected, six appointed.

"I think the board needs to be changed," Cloobeck said Friday. "If you are talking about board dynamics, it needs to be reduced to a smaller group. Number two it needs to have folks on the board who are qualified with specific life experiences that can help them make prudent decisions."

Until then, Cloobeck said the workshop and retreat are "wasting their time and money, all of our time and money."

"A leadership retreat would mean that you have leaders participating," Cloobeck said.

Regent Howard Rosenberg, a member of the board development committee that is planning the workshop, acknowledged the board's current problems and said talking about the issues Friday was a step in the right direction.

"It was a very positive meeting," Rosenberg said. "I was delighted ... I see a healthy quality to it, because the board members recognize what is going on, and I think that is very good."

The board members decided to focus on conflict resolution and board dynamics after looking at a list of possible topics individual regents said they would like the board to discuss at the annual workshop.

Other issues included board leadership, case studies of past practice, board, president and chancellor relationships, board ethics and group integrity.

"We all decided that the most important thing was conflict resolution, how to deal with your colleagues when you are in conflict with them, and how to retain positive relationships, even when you violently disagree with them," Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg said regents had not always seen eye-to-eye on issues recently, and had often taken disagreements personally.

Rosenberg said he thought the May workshop would help regents "have faith in one another again" by helping them understand each another's different perspectives.

Regent Bret Whipple agreed, adding that the workshop would help regents "iron out differences and work better as a board so can serve taxpayers and constituents better."

"The workshop gives us an opportunity to learn more about why we have differences in opinion, learn more why we have different biases and work toward the common good," Whipple said.

Suzanne Ernst, system chief administrative officer, is working to find professional speakers to speak at the workshop, which will encompass a Friday evening and Saturday morning, regents said.