‘Frenetic’ CCSN has some really big plans

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006 | 7:15 a.m.

To say that Community College of Southern Nevada President Richard Carpenter is ambitious is to say that his boss, university system Chancellor Jim Rogers, has a few bucks.

Both would be gross understatements.

In the next two years, Carpenter plans to launch a fourth main campus in northwest Las Vegas without tapping state dollars, secure land in the southwest for a fifth, partner with the Clark County School District to help better prepare students for college, overhaul the college's technology infrastructure, ramp up online education, lobby state and federal lawmakers for considerable dollars to ease the college's money woes and start several new initiatives aimed at helping students earn their degrees.

Entering his third year as president and the college's 35th year in existence, Carpenter and his five vice presidents hit faculty and staff with so many updates and new plans to improve the college at a semester-opening convocation Monday morning that they had to rely on PowerPoint lists to cover everything.

"If there was a theme out of this morning," Carpenter said, "it is that we have some frenetic activity going on."

The proposed 60-acre campus at Durango Drive and Elkhorn Road in the northwest is at the top of Carpenter's to-do list. He must break ground within 18 months to fulfill the school's deal with Las Vegas, which donated the land.

Carpenter plans to develop a mixed-use campus that incorporates classroom and laboratory space with retail and restaurants. The lease revenue will help CCSN pay for construction costs.

Simultaneously, the college plans to shell out $6 million during the next two years to replace or upgrade its entire technology infrastructure, including all computer networks and servers. By December, Carpenter hopes to have wireless Internet access and faster computing systems on all three campuses.

The new servers will allow the college to offer students a CCSN e-mail account for the first time, and is part of an effort to keep students in school and help them achieve their educational goals.

Student Services employees will use the e-mail system to better communicate important dates and information to students, including sending out alerts to remind them to meet with advisers or to warn them that they need to seek tutoring in a class because of a failing grade.

About $2 million in network and server equipment has been ordered, Carpenter said. He is paying for the upgrades using student technology fees and savings from outsourcing the information technology department to SunGard Collegis in January. Carpenter is also directing savings from slashed administrative costs toward technology needs and to developing more online classes.

This year, CCSN is seeking federal dollars for the first time to help pay for its many initiatives, including a $3 million request to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid for online education, and $1.5 million from Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., to improve its data network and add the wireless technology. There's also a $1.5 million request to Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., for the college's transportation program, and two requests to Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.: one for $1 million for homeland security initiatives and a $750,000 request for disabled and international students.

"If we only get a portion of one of those, that will be a huge step forward for this college," said Rand Key, vice president for planning and development.

Last week the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents approved CCSN's request to pursue $21 million in additional money from the state Legislature next session. The money would be used to close the funding gap between CCSN and the state's other community colleges - something Carpenter has been lobbying for since he became president in August 2004.