Administration overhaul continues

Friday, May 20, 2005 | 9:50 a.m.

Community College of Southern Nevada President Richard Carpenter is continuing his sweeping reforms of the college's administrative structure with some new hires and administrative reductions.

In the 10th month of his tenure at the previously conflict-prone college, Carpenter said he hopes to hire a new vice president of academic affairs and a vice president of student services by the end of the day. Both positions have been filled by interims for the last year.

"I'm very anxious to get my senior team in place," Carpenter said.

Carpenter has also hired a new director of diversity relations, Henderson resident Debra Lopez. Lopez will be in charge of promoting an environment that welcomes and nurtures cultural differences, Carpenter said, both through professional development in-house and community outreach.

Lopez, who has a master's in management, labor and human resources from Ohio State University, has spent most of her career as a management and leadership development consultant. Carpenter said she brings a unique viewpoint to the position as a bilingual black woman married to a Hispanic man.

"Not that that is relevant, but it's sort of neat," Carpenter said. "... She can understand a lot of different angles."

Lopez will make $79,500 a year, college officials said.

Within the next week, Carpenter also said he plans to consolidate several department chair positions, reducing the current 26 positions down to 20. The departments being reduced are all too small to justify having a department chair, Carpenter said, and the change will save the college about $50,000 to $60,000 a year.

The savings will cover another full-time faculty position, Carpenter said, because the college is in desperate need for more professors.

Carpenter has spent the last several months working with deans and departments heads to refine their duties and establish performance goals, he and faculty said. About six to seven department heads resigned during that process, some due to concerns about the changes and some for other reasons.

The changes created considerable initial controversy for professors, Faculty Senate Chairman Terry Jones said, but most have come to a "grudging sort of acceptance that faculty will be listened to if they step up to the plate with their concerns."

Most resistance has been based on "territorial concerns," Jones said, and the faculty generally sees the changes as beneficial to the college as an institution.

The college lost two deans in the last semester as well, but not because of the administrative changes.

Martin Hicks, dean of science and mathematics, announced Wednesday that he was leaving the position to return to the classroom. He will teach anatomy and physiology, mandatory classes for nursing and other health sciences that the college has had trouble hiring faculty for.

"It's a good time for me to go back and help that effort," Hicks said, adding that the "classroom is what the college is all about."

Carpenter said he plans to appoint Unoo Chang as interim dean, a visiting nutrition professor from Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, who Carpenter has been mentoring for administrative service through an American Council on Education grant.

Don Smith, former dean of Arts and Letters, was forced to resign in March because of a plea agreement with the attorney general's office for showing favoritism to a student. Carpenter named Carlos Campo of the English department interim dean.

Carpenter said he expects to announce even more changes in the coming month, including a complete reorganization of student services. Carpenter said he wants to ensure that students get the same level of service at all three main campuses, and he wants the department to do a better job of helping students meet their goals by better tracking their progress.

Carpenter has previously overhauled the human resources and continuing education departments.