Regents may alter colleges’ policy on firing

Monday, Oct. 4, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

Community College of Southern Nevada President Dr. Richard Carpenter wants to be able to get rid of employees who are not doing their jobs.

But under the current systemwide policy for terminating employees, Carpenter and other institutional presidents have to keep unsatisfactory employees around for up to 23 months.

"It's the most bizarre human resource policy I've ever seen," said Carpenter, who helped bring the policy to the attention of regents in one of his memos discussing hiring problems at CCSN.

The Board of Regents will consider shortening that time frame at their upcoming meeting in Reno Oct. 14 and 15, at least for employees hired after Jan. 1, 2005. The item is for information only, with final action scheduled for December.

Under the proposed policy, nontenured, administrative employees in their first year of employment would only be required to receive 60 days' notice of their dismissal.

Employees in their second year would get 90 days, and those with three or more years in the system would receive 120 days' notice.

Current Board of Regents policy requires that the institutions give all nontenured, administrative employees one year's notice that they will not be reappointed before the end of the fiscal year. If an institution misses the June 30 cut-off date, the employee is able to stay on for 23 more months.

Meanwhile, the institution has to keep paying the salary, making it difficult to hire a replacement, Carpenter said. The now disgruntled employee often is also destructive to the department, either by purposefully wreaking havoc or just by slowing down productivity.

"You've got a very unhappy employee who is going to be with you up to two years," Carpenter said. "... They hurt themselves as well as the institution, and nobody wins in that."

Most regents who were available for comment Friday said they still needed to read the details of the proposal, but agreed with Carpenter that keeping fired employees on for a year or more was dangerous to the institution.

"I don't think people who don't have tenure should be able to stay there a year after receiving a letter of non-reappointment," Regent Linda Howard said. "Ninety days at the most."

Board Chairman Stavros Anthony said changes to the policy are needed.

"If the president decides they don't want to keep a particular employee around, then they need to make that change as quickly as possible," Anthony said.

Regent Steve Sisolak said the proposal would save the state "untold dollars" and give the presidents flexibility.

Both Sisolak and Regent Mark Alden, who requested the agenda item, said they were disappointed the proposed policy would only apply to those hired after Jan. 1, 2005. According to the system office, making the policy change apply to employees hired under the old rules could lead to contractual disputes.

"I think they should be protected until the policy is put in, but I think it should be retroactive," Alden said. "You should be able to change the rules."

The proposal is one of many agenda items aimed at cleaning up system policies. Also on the agenda are a proposal to allow institutional presidents to decide on transitional plans for outgoing vice presidents without regent approval; a change in the way chancellor and presidents are evaluated; and a look at plans to purchase a new computer program that would streamline the information flow.

The computer management program would bring all of the student services, human resources and other institutional data under one system for the entire state; initial cost estimates for the program are in the $100 million range.

Carpenter said upgrading the data management system is essential to good management, as many of the larger institutions like CCSN are crippled by the inability to get up-to-date reports on their schools.