Legislative measures bother board

Friday, April 15, 2005 | 9:13 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Most of the legislation affecting the University and Community College System of Nevada appears to be going in a favorable direction, Dan Klaich, vice chancellor for legal affairs, told regents during a meeting at Western Nevada Community College on Thursday.

But at least two bills in the Legislature, both being pushed through by Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, gave regents pause.

One, a constitutional amendment to change the structure of the Board of Regents, has already passed through the Assembly and is waiting to be heard in the Senate Government Affairs Committee. Several regents again argued that there needs to be more done to defeat this bill in the Senate.

The amendment would change the size of the Board of Regents from 13 to nine, with six of those regents appointed and three elected.

Several regents, following the lead of North Las Vegas Regent Linda Howard, have written letters to all of the senators. But Regent James Dean Leavitt said defeating the bill should also be the "highest priority" of Klaich, Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers and the system lobbyists.

Both Howard and Leavitt said they were disappointed that regents and system officials didn't more stringently oppose the amendment when it was before the Assembly. It passed 40-1.

Klaich said the lobbyists haven't addressed the issue since then because of other pressing bills. But starting Monday morning, after today's deadline to get bills out of their originating committees, he said he will personally speak with every member of the Senate about defeating the bill.

Another of Giunchigliani's bills, AB 280, is still in the Assembly Education Committee. It proposes several changes to higher education, including mandating the maximum number of credits for a degree program and dictating the way classes transfer.

Klaich said the impetus behind the bill is one of wanting to make the transition for students between the community college and the university as smooth as possible, but that the language itself may be improperly "usurping" the Board of Regents' authority to set such policy. If so, the bill would be unconstitutional, Klaich said.

Klaich and Chris Chairsell, interim vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, said they are working with Giunchigliani to amend the bill.

System officials are also working closely with lawmakers on alterations to the Millennium Scholarship requirements and to changes in the open meeting law, many of them prompted by alleged violations by the Board of Regents.

Most of the open meeting law changes that passed out of committee deal with how closed personnel sessions are handled and will impact all public boards, Klaich said. Originally, the language of one bill targeted only the Board of Regents, which he said may have been unconstitutional.

The regents have been a target since an uproar of their handling of a high-profile personnel matter and because they met behind closed doors to dicuss system employees, including Giunchigliani, who was then worked for the Community College of Southern Nevada.

For the most part, the changes being requested, such as ensuring proper due process for the subject of a closed session, have already been incorporated into the regents' own open meeting law policy, Klaich said. Regents adopted that policy earlier this year as part of a settlement agreement with the Attorney General's office.