Chancellor’s office restructured

Friday, June 24, 2005 | 8:46 a.m.

Chancellor Jim Rogers earned regent approval on several of his plans to restructure his office in the Nevada System of Higher Education Thursday.

The Board of Regents approved a plan to move the external relations division under Rogers authority to give the chancellor more control over "telling the great story" of the university system, as Regent James Dean Leavitt put it.

Regents also consented to the restructuring of the chief administrative position currently filled by Suzanne Ernst back to a board secretary position. Ernst had overseen external relations in addition to overseeing all regent business. Ernst is resigning from her regent post to take a job under Rogers as a special assistant to the chancellor. Regents appointed one of her current staff members, Fini Dobyns, to fill in as secretary to the board.

Rogers also announced plans on Thursday to extend the job duties of Dan Klaich, vice chancellor for legal affairs, to also oversee administration. The vice chancellors for finance and information technology will report directly to Klaich, Rogers said, freeing him as chancellor to focus more on academic affairs.

Rogers is searching for new vice chancellors for information technology and academic affairs. Rogers said he will likely ask regents to give Klaich a raise down the road, both to compensate him for his extra duties and because the new vice chancellors will likely have to be hired in at a higher salary because of the current market.

Klaich was promoted in February to the position of vice chancellor, which raised his salary $20,000 to $170,000 a year. Rogers said he will likely ask regents to give Klaich another $20,000.

Klaich was unanimously praised on Thursday by Rogers and regents for his work heading the system's lobbying team during the 2005 Legislature. The system received an unprecedented $200 million in state dollars for capital construction needs.