Regents impressed with chancellor candidate list

Tuesday, April 19, 2005 | 11:11 a.m.

Nevada university system Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers' competitors for the permanent job are now public.

And there appear to be some serious contenders on the list, regents said.

The names were faxed Monday to the Board of Regents on an advance copy of the agenda for the Monday meeting of the chancellor search committee.

Rogers' competition includes: Steven B. Bing, a fund manager for the investment company Prosperitas Investment Partners LP in Louisville, Ky.; Lloyd E. Dodd, a brigadier general in the Air Force and a medical doctor; Robert L. King, chancellor of the State University of New York; Irving McPhail, chancellor of the Community College of Baltimore County; J. Jay Noren, a medical doctor and executive vice president and provost of the University of Nebraska; and Diane Vines, president of the Oregon Science and Technology partnership.

The committee will not receive the full applications for the seven individuals, which includes Rogers, until next Monday, but some regents on the search committee said they are already impressed by the credentials of the six out-of-towners.

King's last six years as chancellor of SUNY, one of the largest university systems in the country, particularly interested at least two regents.

As chancellor, King, like Rogers, has extensive experience bringing in dollars to the 64-campus SUNY system, having launched a largely successful $5 billion campaign for new resources in 2000.

The chancellor stint was King's first in higher education, but he has a long career in government. He served as budget director for New York state under Gov. George Pataki, served as director of the governor's office of Regulatory Reform, was an elected Monroe County executive and a New York state assemblyman.

"I'm very interested in the Nevada system because it appears to be one that is growing, that is creative and one that I think the experience I've had could help it do that," King said.

The Rochester native has a law degree from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and has worked as a prosecutor in New York and California.

But King is not the only one of the six who is impressive, Regent Howard Rosenberg, a member of the search committee, said.

"They all sound very interesting and its certainly worth talking about," Rosenberg said. "I'm delighted they have applied."

After weeks of hearing that Rogers, a millionaire media mogul, attorney and businessman, was considered by regents as a frontrunner for the permanent position, Regent Steve Sisolak said he gives the other six candidates "an awful lot of credit. It says a lot about their character and confidence that they are willing to stick in there."

At Rogers' request, regents on Thursday withdrew a motion to cancel the search and to appoint the Sunbelt Communications chairman to the permanent position. Rogers and regents said it was important that there not be a cloud hanging over whoever is selected for the permanent job.

King, who said he would take regents at their word that the search process would be fair, agreed.

"I think that having managed or been intimately involved in selecting campus presidents in our system, I know how important it is to the campus or the system to have a search process that is fair and square, that is done appropriately. I think it's important for whoever it is who is selected that they come into the position with the larger community confident that the search was fair."

Vines, the only woman on the semi-finalist list, said Rogers' candidacy did make the process a little more "nerve-wracking," but she too said she was confident in the search process.

"If they had completely made up their minds they would have canceled the search," Vines said.

Vines currently runs her own publishing company in addition to serving as president of the Oregon Science and Technology Partnership and as an adjunct nursing professor at the University of Portland. She has served as a vice chancellor for external affairs and economic development in the Oregon University System and as the vice president for academic development for the California State University Institute.

The institute is the entrepreneurial arm of the 23-campus system, Vines said, and she was in charge of developing both private public partnerships and commercial ventures. As the president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education in 1997, Vines said she came to know Nevada well and that she likes the structure of the system. She has a doctorate in sociology from Boston University.

None of the other candidates could be reached Monday.

Bing's biography on his company Web site describes him as an entrepreneur and businessman with experience in government and higher education. Before his position at Prosperitas, the attorney served in the Kentucky governor's office as a senior budget and policy analyst, was vice president for university relations at the University of Louisville and was president of a $12 billion insurance holding company.

Dodd is the command surgeon for the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, according to his U.S. Air Force biography. He oversees the integration of medical assets internally and externally to support the military response to civilian disasters. He has a medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

McPhail helped lead the reorganization of the Community College of Baltimore County from three separate colleges into one single, multi-campus institution, according to a college press release.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education alumnus is also listed as secretary of the American Council on Education and has served on numerous councils promoting black education and economic development.

Noren, also a medical doctor, was president of the Health Science Center and vice chancellor for Health Affairs at the Texas A&M University System prior to his provost position in Nebraska, according to his University of Nebraska biography.

He has previously served as chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and as vice chancellor for Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin.

King, Dodd and McPhail have all publicly announced they will be retiring from their current positions this summer.