Editorial: Why delay on ethics?

Tuesday, July 12, 2005 | 9:12 a.m.

University Regent Doug Seastrand announced in early May that he would resign from the board that oversees the University and Community College System of Nevada. Seastrand, you see, had secured a $105,000 job as a computer scientist at UNLV, a university that was under the oversight of the Board of Regents. While Seastrand obviously couldn't hold both jobs because of the inherent conflicts of interest, it nonetheless was disturbing that Seastrand had applied for the UNLV job while he was still a regent -- another obvious conflict of interest. UNLV denied that there was any pressure to hire Seastrand because of the power he holds over the university as a regent, but this kind of situation obviously can make university administrators uncomfortable and feel compelled to hire someone who effectively is their boss. Other regents acknowledged that there was a pro blem and proposed that the board impose a mandatory cooling-off period for regents before taking a job with the university ! system.

A subcommittee of the Board of Regents met on Friday, and while regents seemed to reach a consensus that members of the board should be prohibited from applying for university jobs while in office, they didn't take any action on a proposal that would do so. They decided to wait until late October when the full board is going to have a development workshop.

A Ph.D. isn't required to grasp what should be done: It is unethical to apply for a job at a university if you are a member of a board that ultimately oversees the institution. Period. For that matter, a member of the board should have to wait at least a year after leaving the board before applying for a job at one of Nevada's state universities. The Board of Regents should act swiftly on this issue.