Regents set up search committee to find new chancellor

Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 | 9:10 a.m.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers' days as the person in charge of the state's higher education system are numbered.

Board of Regents Chairman Stavros Anthony announced Thursday that he had established a search committee to find a permanent replacement for the chancellor position.

The committee, which will be chaired by Regent Bret Whipple, will begin the search on Nov. 5.

Rogers irked several regents in recent weeks by sending out a memo blaming board divisiveness for some of the system's dysfunctions, but Anthony said those memos had nothing to do with his decision to set up the search committee now.

"It's just a coincidence," Anthony said, noting that it had always been his intention to set up the committee in the fall.

It will take six to eight months to find the right person for the job, Anthony said, which means Rogers will remain at the helm through the 2005 legislative session.

Rogers could not be reached for comment Thursday, but has said previously that he planned to stay on as interim chancellor only through June 1.

Rogers, owner of Sunbelt Communications Co., parent company of KVBC Channel 3, lobbied regents to allow him to take on the chancellor position back in May after then-Chancellor Jane Nichols resigned for health reasons.

Rogers is being paid the minimum annual salary allowed by law, about $8,000.

Regent Steve Sisolak said Rogers has helped the board resolve several recent problems that will make it easier to attract candidates to the job, including the settlements Rogers made with the Nevada attorney general's office over the open-meeting law and the settlements with demoted Community College of Southern Nevada administrators Ron Remington and John Cummings.

"I think he's restored some of the confidence in the board," Sisolak said, "both the confidence of the Legislature in the board and of the public in the board.

"It's a much more attractive job then it was before, because he has cleaned up a lot of the stuff that someone new coming in would have had to deal with."

Whipple agreed, saying that Rogers had done an "admirable job" and had been a "tireless worker" for the system, but that at some point the Board of Regents did have to find a permanent chancellor.

"Who knows how long it will take to find the best person for the job," Whipple said.

Whipple, Sisolak and Regent Doug Seastrand will represent Southern Nevada regents on the committeem and regents Doug Hill, Jill Derby and Howard Rosenberg will represent the north.

Per board policy, the president and faculty senate chairpersons from each institution will also be asked to appoint two committee members each, and the student body presidents will also be asked to appoint one student representative.