Regents approve raises for Carpenter, Wells

By Christina Littlefield (contact)

Friday, Sept. 23, 2005 | 10:14 a.m.

The university Board of Regents approved several new employee contracts Thursday and today, including a $20,000 raise for Community College of Southern Nevada President Richard Carpenter and a $20,000 salary supplement for Desert Research Institute President Stephen Wells.

Regents also approved a contract extension for UNLV's men's basketball coach Lon Kruger as part of a block of coaching raises at the university.

Regents unanimously approved Carpenter's raise after an early personnel session this morning that Carpenter voluntarily left open. Starting Oct. 1 state law will mandate that Nevada System of Higher Education institutional presidents have all of their personnel sessions in the open.

Regents had nothing but praise for Carpenter, who they said had done much to heal a broken institution.

"Hopefully we'll say all these good things behind your back too," Regent Linda Howard said after telling Carpenter how much she appreciated his work for the faculty, staff and students at CCSN.

Chancellor Jim Rogers pushed the raise to bring Carpenter in line with the other system presidents and to reward him for his work, including cutting $1 million in administrative overhead during his first year.

"I think he has earned his pay many times over," Rogers said.

Carpenter's raise will bring his base salary to $213,800, not including his $12,000 housing allowance, $8,000 car allowance and $5,000 host account. Carpenter said he could not have had the success he has had at the college without the hard work of the faculty and staff.

The private DRI Foundation is supplementing Wells' salary out of the donor funds. The $20,000 supplement is in addition to more than $7,000 in club memberships the foundation offered to Wells beginning in July.

The increase brings Wells' base salary to $254,560. Because he splits his time between the north and the south, he also receives a $24,000 housing allowance and the $8,000 car allowance and $5,000 host accounts other system presidents receive.

UNLV and UNR's private foundations supplement the presidential salaries at those institutions by about $90,000 a year.

Kruger's new contract extends his term at the university to 2010, topping his base salary out at $212,500. Initially, his contract was due to expire in 2009 at $192,500. He currently makes a base salary of $155,000, with more than $600,000 in other perks and additional compensation for television, radio and public appearances.

Three other UNLV head coaches, baseball coach Buddy Gouldsmith, softball coach Alana Maree Alameda and tennis coach Owen Hambrook also received one-year contract extensions, albeit with more modest raises.

UNLV President Carol Harter said the extensions were necessary to keep the coaches around and guarantee to the players that that coach will be there for their time at the university.

Regents also unanimously appointed Fini S. Dobyns to serve as secretary to the board at $75,000 a year. A system employee since 1997, Dobyns has served as the interim secretary since Suzanne Ernst resigned to take a position as a special adviser to Rogers.