LOOKING IN ON: HIGHER EDUCATION

Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2006 | 7:07 a.m.

University system regents don't appreciate state lawmakers telling them what to do, not even the premier state lawmaker, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno.

Raggio sent three letters to Nevada System of Higher Education regents over the last few months asking them to speed up the implementation of their new Millennium Scholarship course requirements.

To qualify for the $10,000 state scholarship, graduating high school seniors will have to take four years of math and English and three years of science and social science.

But regents had delayed implementing the requirements until 2010 so that students would have time to prepare and so that school districts, particularly those in rural areas, could make a fourth year of math available. Currently, students only have to have a B-plus average to earn the scholarship.

Now that state lawmakers are considering legislation to require four years of math for high school graduation, the requirements to qualify for the Millennium Scholarship have to keep pace, Raggio told regents.

Regent Jill Derby on Friday said regents had a "gun to their head," and that lawmakers were challenging their authority to set admission standards.

Regent Michael Wixom complained that high schools were being required to provide instruction for a fourth year of math without getting any extra money to cover the cost.

Regent Linda Howard refused to even vote on the topic, saying, "When are regents going to start governing higher education and stop letting the Legislature tell us what to do?"

In the end, regents agreed to implement the changes one year earlier.

If raucous attendees at the UNLV-UNR football game next fall don't tone down their behavior and vulgar chants, regents may ban alcohol from university football games.

University officials already try to limit individuals to two alcoholic drinks during a game - no easy task - and cut off alcohol sales by the fourth quarter or earlier if deemed necessary. But by then the damage may already be done, since the drinking usually begins at tailgate parties, over which the university has little control.

Regent Stavros Anthony, a Metro Police officer, suggested that security officers need to do a better job policing people as they come in, turning away anyone who appears intoxicated.

If that doesn't work, Derby said, beer might have to be banned.

That would make UNLV's losses all the more painful to watch.

Regents voted with lightning speed on Friday to elect Jack Lund Schofield as vice chairman.

Schofield is replacing the outgoing Howard. The vice chairman, together with the regent chairman, sets the agenda for the board.

Schofield was quickly nominated by Regent Mark Alden, and no sooner did Chairman Bret Whipple call for other nominations when Regent Steve Sisolak called for a close to the nominations. No one objected.

Regents then unanimously voted Schofield into his new post.

Regent elections have been so contentious in the past that university system Chancellor Jim Rogers has issued memos reminding regents to play nicely.

A proud octogenarian, the Las Vegas regent is a former high school science teacher and assistant principal who served as a state assemblyman and senator in the 1970s. A World War II veteran, Schofield likes to use military analogies to talk about the importance of teamwork in advancing higher education in Nevada.