Regents reluctant to give up power

Thursday, Nov. 4, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.

University regents remain torn over whether or not to hand over the authority to hire and fire presidents to the system's chancellor.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers has repeatedly told the University and Community College System of Nevada Board of Regents that the chancellor needs that authority in order to run the system effectively, but some regents say they fear a renegade chancellor might run away with that power and indiscriminately start firing presidents.

The board's development committee continued to be at loggerheads over the issue Wednesday afternoon and after much debate decided to postpone any action until a Dec. 1 meeting.

Whatever the committee decides to recommend will have to be voted on by the entire Board of Regents at the meeting slated for Dec. 2 and 3 in Las Vegas, because the search committee needs a finalized description of the chancellor's duties for the search process, Suzanne Ernst, chief administrative officer for the regents, said.

The search to replace Rogers begins Friday. The millionaire businessman has said he will step down from the chancellor position June 1 and national searches can take several months.

Regent Jill Derby recommended that the chancellor be given the authority to fire presidents in extreme circumstances, and that the chancellor be given general authority to recommend discipline to the board.

"We need to give the chancellor adequate authority so we can function effectively as a system," Derby said, noting that giving the chancellor the power to fire presidents would shield the Board of Regents from the inevitable fallout.

But Regent Howard Rosenberg questioned what would count as extreme circumstances, and said the board was "begging for trouble" by giving one person that much power.

The five-member committee also postponed action on a proposed new presidential employment contract addition that details disciplinary procedures. The contract addition would give the chancellor the ability to recommend discipline and even termination against a president, but the Board of Regents would have the final say in what action was taken after a closed personnel session with the president in question.

If the chancellor is ever given the authority to directly discipline presidents, the proposed addition would give the president the opportunity to appeal the discipline to the Board of Regents.

The proposed addition is a much more detailed version of a contract regents asked UNLV President Carol Harter to sign at the October meeting, when regents agreed to allow the UNLV Foundation to supplement Harter's salary.

The refined version better defines some of the instances for which a president could be disciplined, Assistant Chief Counsel Brooke Nielsen said, and takes care of some of the issues regents raised at the October meeting. For instance, insubordination is now narrowly defined as disobeying a "lawful, written order," which eased the fear some regents had of a president being fired for arguing with the chancellor, Nielsen said.

The system's eight presidents reviewed the proposal at a meeting Tuesday, Nielsen said, and responded favorably to the changes and the definition of insubordination. If approved by the regents, all presidents would be asked to sign the proposed addition as their contracts come up for renewal.

The presidents did recommend that the regents get rid of the disciplinary provisions to dock a president's pay or to temporarily suspend them for wrong-doing, as presidents said that kind of action would severely hinder their ability to function effectively and they might as well be fired, Nielsen said. The presidents were OK with receiving written reprimands.

If regents approve the proposed contract, Nielsen said Harter would have the option of keeping her contract as is or adopting the more refined version.

Community College of Southern Nevada President Richard Carpenter and Harter were not immediately available for comment.

The five-member committee responded favorably to the proposed contract, but postponed action after Regent Bret Whipple said he wanted more time to review the contract.

One concern Whipple said he had was that the system was basing this contract on a similar policy the Arizona Board of Regents adopted. Nielsen said Arizona's policy was unique and that a survey of 17 public institutions in the west came up with no other examples.

Neilsen's survey also found only one university system -- the California State University system -- that gave the chancellor the authority to fire presidents, and that policy has only been in place since July.