Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005 | 11:11 a.m.
Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers wants the Board of Regents to create a new position for him when he steps down from the post in June: vice chancellor for development.
The new position would allow Rogers to raise private money for the University and Community College System of Nevada full time, Rogers told state lawmakers at a Legislative budget hearing in Carson City Monday morning.
Rogers said he would work for free, or, as with his interim chancellor position, for the $8,000 minimum allowed by law.
"Other than my family, this system is the most important thing in my life," Rogers told lawmakers, adding that he wanted to raise money to create "pockets of excellence" at the system's eight institutions.
Rogers presented the idea as part of his pitch to lawmakers on a joint Senate-Assembly budget committee to secure more money for the university system. If the state Legislature will up its funding for the system, particularly on several enhancement and capital construction items, Rogers said that will grease the way for raising more private dollars.
Gov. Kenny Guinn recommended $1.5 million over the biennium for the entire system in his budget, about $36.9 million less than requested, higher education officials said. Guinn's budget proposal denied a $43 million request to increase the percentage of formula funding institutions receive from 84 percent to 87 percent.
Guinn's proposal also left out $17.8 million in maintenance funding requests, $85.9 million in enhancement requests and about $50 million in critical capital construction projects, according to materials presented by Dan Miles, the system's former vice chancellor for finance and now a private budget consultant.
Rogers asked state lawmakers to consider using some of the $300 million Guinn wants to give back to taxpayers through motor vehicle refunds to meet those needs.
"Quite frankly, ... higher education could use every nickel of that," said Rogers, the first in line for several days of pleading before the budget committee.
Rogers and other higher education officials particularly lobbied for the Community College of Southern Nevada's $10 million classroom facility and a $10 million automotive technology facility, Desert Research Institute's $14.4 million Computer Automated Virtual Environment Facility and UNR's $32 million science and math education facility.
"These will be things that will last us forever, and these will be things that will attract private money like you won't believe," Rogers said.
Other key items include $9.35 million to deal with growth in system computing services, $10 million in technology infrastructure and another $7.8 million in other technology needs. The system is also seeking $4.5 million to improve its capacity to produce nurses, $5.5 million to improve safety and security, and $4.75 million to improve student retention and graduation rates.
UNLV President Carol Harter said the $4.75 million in student retention money, along with a $9 million student services building currently not being funded on Guinn's capital construction list, are essential to improving graduation rates at the university system. About $1.4 million of the system's request would go to UNLV.
Led by Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, several lawmakers bemoaned the poor graduation rates at UNLV and UNR, with less than 40 percent of students graduating at UNLV and less than 50 percent graduating at UNR over a six-year period.
The system's biggest challenge this Legislative session, however, may be keeping an allocation Guinn did recommend. Several lawmakers questioned whether it was prudent to allow the two universities to keep all of the money they receive from research grants for overhead costs.
Currently, the universities return 25 percent of that money to the state's general fund, which amounts to more than $10 million over the biennium. Guinn recommended that UNLV and UNR keep that money to help pursue more research grants.
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the state is already paying for those overhead costs so the universities should be required to return some of the money they receive.
Raggio said the higher education system has been lobbying the state for years to keep more and more of the money.
"The good news is that if we approve it they'll be nothing left to argue about," Raggio said.
Board of Regents Chairman Stavros Anthony said he has been talking with Rogers about Rogers moving into a fund-raising position for the system for months.
"I don't think we are going to find anybody in Nevada that has raised as much money for higher education," Anthony said, noting Rogers' personal donations.
Other regents, however, said they had questions about how the position would work, whether a position should be created for a particular person, and what would happen when Rogers left.
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