Editorial: Accountability falls short

Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2006 | 7:39 a.m.

Nevada regents have decided against calling for an independent audit of UNLV's Institute for Security Studies.

In a special session Friday that was peppered with contentious discussion, regents voted to allow completion of ongoing internal audits before deciding whether further study is needed of a program that has failed to meet most of its objectives while harnessing nearly $9 million in taxpayers' money. Regents deferred to new UNLV President David Ashley, who asked that university officials be allowed to address the institute's shortcomings, in-house.

According to a series of stories by the Las Vegas Sun, the institute has dropped three of its original objectives, placed its promised master's program on hold and failed to produce any advances in counterterrorism technologies.

Ashley said he plans to move the institute out of UNLV's Research Foundation and into the more academically focused Division of Research and Graduate Studies. Ashley also plans to hire a new executive director for the institute from outside the university.

These plans are not enough to reveal what is amiss inside this institute. Only a thorough, independent audit can do that, but university regents failed to call for such an objective, outside study. Without such an examination, it will be difficult to restore confidence in this program.