Campuses swell wish list for new buildings beyond system budget

Christina Littlefield

Monday, March 6, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.

Nevada System of Higher Education officials spent weeks whittling down a wish list of capital construction projects to a mere $380 million, only to have college presidents make appeals to regents Thursday for other projects.

The original requests for state money stood at nearly $1 billion, including about $200 million for health sciences initiatives. In the 2005 Legislature, state lawmakers approved an unprecedented $194 million for higher education projects.

Thursday, Community College of Southern Nevada officials sought money for renovations and classroom buildings not on the list, and Nevada State College in Henderson President Fred Maryanski asked for at least planning money on a $25 million classroom building that would be jointly shared with the Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno.

Desert Research Institute President Stephen Wells asked for another $11.2 million to keep his planned Computer Automated Virtual Environment (CAVE) facility from losing two floors due to rising construction costs. He also wants to add a conference facility. Western Nevada Community College President Carol Lucey asked for $8 million to help build a recreation center in partnership with Carson City.

Several regents said they feared that even at $380 million, the list was far too long. They directed system officials to pare the list but to also take the appeals into consideration.

Regent Dorothy Gallagher said the system looked "stupid" asking for so much. But university system Chancellor Jim Rogers said he'd rather be turned down by lawmakers than not get something because he didn't ask.

Gallagher and other regents also directed the chancellor to renegotiate with the state Public Works board to allow the system to oversee its own construction projects to save money.

"If I do that, does that mean you won't call and yell at me anymore?" Rogers asked Gallagher, his friend of 30 years.

"I didn't say that," Gallagher said.

Rogers told regents Thursday that he is working with private donors for a couple of major contributions.

After a recent UNLV basketball game, a donor was so close to signing a $150 million check toward the development of a health sciences center in Southern Nevada that Rogers said he had legal documents drafted. The donor's children, however, interfered when they discovered their parent was about to give away a chunk of their inheritance.

Rogers said he has had his eye on the other donor for a long time to pay the bulk of the planned $65 million nursing facility at Nevada State College, but during the 2005 Legislative session, the circumstances were such that he couldn't approach that donor.

"That situation has just cleared," Rogers said.

When asked if either of those donors could be the Wynns or Stan Fulton, gaming executives who withheld money to the university system because of disagreements with departing UNLV President Carol Harter, Rogers replied that he couldn't say, "but you're pretty close."

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center may no longer be interested in running a proposed health sciences center for the University of Nevada School of Medicine, Rogers said this week.

He said he hasn't heard from Pittsburgh center representatives for months and he is not sure they still want to be involved.

However, a spokesman for the medical center said Friday that the Pittsburgh representatives are waiting to hear from Nevada officials about the role the medical center would play in building and operating the health sciences center.

"UPMC understood that we were going through a visioning process," said Dan Klaich, executive vice chancellor and chief counsel of the university system. "They agreed to wait until it was complete to see if what we had planned for the health sciences center fit their mission."

The Pittsburgh center was considered a frontrunner to operate the facility until the Las Vegas medical community and university officials expressed opposition, arguing that the center should be run locally.

Ray Alden, executive vice president and provost at UNLV, is applying for the provost position at the University of North Florida.

Alden, according to his application packet posted on the UNF Web site, nominated himself for the job. He was a finalist for provost positions at the University of Florida and the University of Missouri last May after being approached by a head hunter.

Alden declined to comment through a UNLV spokeswoman. Regents will be voting March 16 on whether to name Harter president emeritus and whether to rename UNLV's campus mall Harter Square.