Evaluation of Rogers scheduled

Sunday, March 19, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

The state Board of Regents appears poised to look into the role that Chancellor Jim Rogers played in the departure of the state's two university presidents.

At the direction of the regents' Board Development Committee, Regents Chairman Bret Whipple will be starting Rogers' annual evaluation this month. The results of that evaluation will be aired publicly during the June meeting.

Board Development Committee Chairman James Leavitt said he wanted to see the evaluation before a board workshop scheduled for August. If the evaluation raises any concerns, the workshop can be used to try to improve relations between the chancellor and the regents.

Rogers had been criticized by Regents Howard Rosenberg and Linda Howard for his role in pushing UNLV President Carol Harter to resign in June.

Rogers said he encouraged UNR President John Lilley to look for other work. Lilley left UNR in December to become president of Baylor University.

Rosenberg and Howard called for a special personnel session to evaluate Rogers, but could not get a third regent to support getting it on an agenda.

Rogers' evaluation will include feedback from the system staff, from faculty on the state's university and college campuses, and members of the community.

Speaking of Harter, university regents unanimously approved giving her president-emeritus status and granting her the title of regents' professor upon her retirement June 30.

(Well, unanimous in that everyone present voted to approve. Harter critic Regent Doug Hill mysteriously disappeared just before the vote, and Regents Jill Derby and Jack Lund Schofield were absent for the entire two-day meeting.)

But regents decided that a motion to rename the university's Academic Mall for Harter was not a fitting enough tribute. Student leaders suggested that UNLV's classroom building complex be named after Harter to reflect her commitment to educate during her 11-year tenure as president.

Regents will look at that suggestion at their June meeting.

Renowned science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke is coming to UNLV.

Or at least his personal archives are.

The Board of Regents unanimously approved a plan this week to create the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Imagination and Opportunity at UNLV. Based in the Honors College, the center will honor the "2001: A Space Odyssey" author's unique fusion of science and literature in working to expand the scope of human imagination.

The center will bring together professors from across disciplines to study, identify and help promote creative thinking, particularly in children, said Tedson Myers, chairman of the Clarke Foundation.

The center will also help pay for and recruit scholars and graduate assistants to UNLV, but the major benefit will be the opportunity to house Clarke's papers in the university's Special Collections. The foundation is working to catalog and digitize a collection of papers and manuscripts, including Clarke's personal diaries, Myers said.

The Clarke Foundation has been working with UNLV for several years to develop the center. The foundation signed a memorandum of understanding with the university in May 2004 and hosted an architectural design competition among UNLV students in July. One of the hallmarks of the center will be sponsoring competitions that promote creative thinking, Myers said.

The next steps will be establishing a board of directors for the center and to start fundraising, Myers and Honors College Dean Stephen Rosenbaum said. The Clarke Foundation will be primarily responsible for raising money for the center. Cost estimates for the first full year is $225,000, jumping to $505,000 by the 2009-2010 school year.

Regents also unanimously approved UNLV's request to establish the Black Mountain Institute, a proposed think tank for literary scholars to discuss global issues.