Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 | 12:33 p.m.
A number of UNLV professors contend that gender bias may have played a role in President Carol Harter's decision to step down.
Professors on a pair of committees sent a letter to university system regents last week asking them to look into whether gender bias or intolerance of diverse viewpoints by Chancellor Jim Rogers or other system officials led Harter to resign.
Harter signed an agreement Jan. 27 to step down as president on June 30 to lead UNLV's capital campaign full time. UNLV Foundation executives said they offered Harter the position after watching her working relationship with Rogers deteriorate over stylistic differences.
"If you have a strong female president of a university who is doing really great things with that institution, then it would seem to me whether the differences are gender or stylistic differences, you would do everything necessary to keep that strong female president successful," said Cynthia Carruthers, chairwoman of the Committee for an Inclusive and Just University.
Other remarks by regents and higher education officials since the resignation have furthered the perception that gender bias played a role in Harter's resignation, particularly comments by Reno Regent Howard Rosenberg, who said Harter was too strong of a woman for Rogers.
"Those perceptions have power," Carruthers, a Leisure Studies professor, said. "If people perceive that this is not a system that celebrates diversity ... it will impact our ability to recruit strong, dynamic presidents as well as faculty, staff and students."
Carruthers' committee and the Status of Women Committee include about 45 UNLV faculty and staff members who worked together to draft the letter.
UNLV's Faculty Senate is meeting today to craft its response, Chairman Clint Richards said. Professors are concerned about the process that led to her decision.
Regents Chairman Bret Whipple said Monday that he had not seen the UNLV letter, but that he would be happy to hear the committees' concerns. He said he didn't believe there was any gender bias involved.
Rogers was ill Monday and was not available for comment, his secretary said. Rogers, however, sent an e-mail request to UNLV faculty asking to meet with professors critical of his role in Harter's resignation.
Regent Linda Howard called into KNPR's radio show "State of Nevada," as Rogers was being interviewed to accuse him of bigotry for not responding to her criticisms or those of Rosenberg.
"The chancellor does not reach out to me," Howard said. "I don't know if it's because I'm black and I'm a woman. I don't know if he is not getting along with Howard Rosenberg because he is Jewish and gay. I don't know what it is.
"But I have supported him from day one, and I have tried to talk to him about many issues, dealing with diversity and a whole lot of things. He does not call me and he does not include me."
Howard and Rosenberg are the only two regents who have criticized Rogers openly over Harter's resignation.
The majority of the 13-member Board of Regents have said they prefer to move forward rather than dwell on her departure.
By Monday, after speaking with Whipple about their concerns, both Howard and Rosenberg said they intend to refrain from further commenting publically about Harter's ouster.
Christina Littlefield can be reached at 259-8813 or at [email protected].
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