Chancellor gets power to fire college presidents

Monday, Feb. 7, 2005 | 8:56 a.m.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers finally got his wish.

After months of debate, the university Board of Regents voted 12-1 on Friday to give the chancellor authority to fire presidents.

Rogers made the policy change an essential goal of his administration, repeatedly telling regents that the chancellor position needed authority over the presidents to be able to effectively run the system.

The approved policy authorizes the chancellor to issue progressive discipline against University and Community College System of Nevada presidents up to and including termination.

Regent Steve Sisolak was the only one to vote against the proposal, which regents debated for about two hours on Friday. Regent Howard Rosenberg, who has been adamantly opposed to the proposal for months, voted in favor after regents included a provision giving presidents the right to appeal termination to the Board of Regents.

Rosenberg agreed, however, with Sisolak that the regents were giving the chancellor a responsibility that they should keep. Sisolak said he believed many of the regents were voting for the proposal because of the political fallout they faced in November 2003 when the board narrowly voted to remove the president of the Community College of Southern Nevada.

Rosenberg voted to give the power to the chancellor anyway because, he said, they gave the presidents the right to appeal termination to the board of regents.

But, he said, he still agreed with Sisolak, who said: "I believe this is an act of cowardice on the part of the board. We are looking for a scapegoat, someone to provide cover."

The debate was the only drawn out discussion in what was a rapid-fire, one-day session for the UCCSN governing board. Rogers also managed to push forward a new open meeting law policy, a new vice chancellor position for legal affairs, a policy reducing the amount of time it takes to terminate non-tenured employees and a policy limiting the number of professional schools in the state.

The open meeting law policy, required by the regents' settlement agreement with the Nevada attorney general's office over alleged violations, clarified many of the issues that came up during litigation after the CCSN president was removed following two closed personnel sessions.

Regents, particularly Doug Hill of Reno, had several technical questions about the policy, which went beyond the current open meeting law, but in the end they voted to approve the policy as is 11 to 1 at Rogers' urging. Hill voted against the proposal and Board Chairman Stavros Anthony was absent during the vote.

Rogers said the policy was essential to show that the Board of Regents and the university system are committed to openness, and that the system is no longer going to "play games" over technicalities of law.

"I really think it sends a strong, loud message to the Legislature," newly elected Regent James Dean Leavitt said, echoing the sentiments of several regents.

In approving the new policy, several regents added that they would like to see the Legislature abide by the open meeting law as well. The Legislature is the only elected body exempt from the law.

In promoting chief attorney Dan Klaich to the position of vice chancellor for legal affairs, regents said they were recognizing Klaich's increased responsibilities. In addition to regularly consulting with the attorney general on open meeting law issues, Klaich oversees the system's entire legal department and is one of the system's leaders in pushing the higher education agenda this Legislative season, Rogers said.

The new job title comes with a $20,000 raise for Klaich, bringing the former regent's salary to $170,000 a year.

Regents also voted to reduce the amount of time it takes to terminate a non-tenured employee. Previously, system policy allowed employees to stay on at their current job for up to 23 months depending on when the employee received a letter of non-reappointment.

Regents reduced that period to 60 to 120 days, depending on the employee's time on the job, for non-tenured administrators above the dean level and to 90 days to one year for non-tenured academic and administrative faculty, again depending on the employee's time on the job. The one-year timeline applies only to faculty who have been teaching for three or more years and may be extended up to 16 months if the termination period would fall in the middle of a class the faculty member is teaching.

Several regents said they wanted to see the time period reduced farther, but met resistance from faculty senates at all of the institutions, who argued that the nature of academics made it difficult to find a job elsewhere and that employees needed that additional time.

The policy will only apply to employees hired after March 1, as all other employees have the former policy in their contracts, Assistant Chancellor Trudy Larson said.

Regents approved limiting the state to one medical school, one dental school and one law school at Rogers' request, which he argued was necessary to put an end to rumors about starting additional schools. The state cannot afford to duplicate current efforts, Rogers said, and the system cannot handle the competition between UNLV and UNR over who gets to run what professional school.

Rogers said he is instead encouraging the universities to work together to expand their professional programs throughout the state.

In other news, regents also unanimously approved a request from UNLV to expand their hotel administration courses to Singapore.

The Singapore Economic Development Board has invited the university to offer its bachelor's degree and its executive master's degree in hotel administration on the island republic, and will be fronting the start-up costs for the courses, UNLV Provost Ray Alden said Friday. UNLV asked for a tuition variance to allow the program to be self-sufficient and asked for regents to allow the chancellor to negotiate the final memorandums of agreement between the university and the Singapore government.