Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Regents search for balance of power

As the Board of Regents gears up for its nationwide search for a new chancellor, regents are re-evaluating how much authority they want that position to have.

Key to the debate is whether the chancellor should have the authority to hire and fire presidents, or at least the ability to discipline those who step out of line or violate board policy.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers has pushed for that authority in recent memos, and regents on the board's development committee discussed the topic with Rogers during a Thursday meeting.

Rogers also said Thursday he has been working with the system's legal counsel to develop a new contract for the presidents that would include both performance standards and provisions that would allow the chancellor to discipline presidents who fall short of those standards.

Presidential contracts currently include neither, Rogers said, making it very difficult for him to back up his orders with any authority. He asked regents to consider the proposed contract, due out today, as they continue to discuss the chancellor's role.

"I think it will strengthen the board if you have a strong chancellor, and I think it will strengthen the presidents," Rogers said. "... We need someone strong who will not be pushed around by the board or pushed around by the presidents."

Most of the five-member committee agreed that the chancellor should be the chief executive officer of the system and thus should have the authority to hire and fire all staff, but a few also said they feared centralizing too much authority in one position. Regents also expressed nervousness at handing over that power without knowing who might fill the chancellor's role in the future.

Regent Howard Rosenberg said he feared a renegade chancellor firing a president over personal animosity, and Regent Jill Derby said she feared that giving the chancellor that much authority might stifle the ability of presidents to be entrepreneurial in their institutions.

"If we have the chancellor at the top and everybody else salutes, we won't get good presidents," Derby said.

But Rogers said regents would control those situations by holding the chancellor accountable. Any chancellor who fires a president without good cause or without warning the regents first would know he or she would be next, Rogers said.

Regents and Rogers also discussed the need to let either the chancellor or individual presidents handle any complaints they receive from constituents, rather than trying to solve the problem themselves. Rogers said it often creates a bigger mess when regents get involved beyond just forwarding the problem to the chief executives.

In working toward a draft job description for the chancellor search, regents based their discussion on a 1993 report the board developed with outside consultants to re-evaluate both the chancellor's position and the board's.

Although Derby noted that the board has made significant strides to implement the suggestions, which focus on the need for a strong, authoritative chancellor, she and other regents said they were surprised at how relevant the decade-old report is to the problems the board is facing today.

The reports call for the board to hand authority for all administrative issues with the institutions to the chancellor and to leading and educating the board on higher education policy. The reports also discuss the need for the board to focus on policy.

Rogers said he was in such agreement with the reports that when he first saw them he said, "My God, when did I write that?"

The board development committee also briefly discussed a proposed board workshop on ethics that would include a segment on ethical communication, or how to remain civil, during board meetings. The March workshop would include a speaker from the Nevada Ethics Commission, system officials said.

Most of the regents agreed that the board needed a lesson in ethics and civility, with Regent Bret Whipple quipping that it was excellent idea if it meant that regents wouldn't have to "read about ourselves in the paper."

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