Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.
UNLV President David Ashley and fundraising campaign Chairman Don Snyder say they are standing behind the university's "Invent the Future" campaign totals, and by inference, their chief fundraiser, Vice President for Development John Gallagher.
But if merit pay is any indication, there are problems afoot at the foundation. Gallagher was the only vice president at UNLV not to get merit pay this past year, according to an Excel spreadsheet posted on the university's Web site. In fact, he hasn't gotten merit pay for the last three years, but he received $20,000 in equity pay instead.
Equity pay is used to raise someone's salary up to market value. Merit pay is supposed to be awarded for a job well done.
Former President Carol Harter preferred to raise Gallagher's salary using equity pay, spokesman Dave Tonelli said.
Four other fundraisers, out of 24 who were eligible for merit pay, were also zeroed out, including the recently departed Associate Vice President Fred Conboy. In past years everyone eligible for merit pay received it.
In response to a Sun story Wednesday about continued turnover at the foundation, a reader sent in enlightening wisdom oft attributed to Roman satirist Petronius Arbiter, but of dubious origin. The sentiment, however, fits:
"We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing: And what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."
Anyone who decided to hang around inside Sam Boyd Stadium on Sept. 30 after UNR's blowout victory against UNLV might have been perplexed about why UNLV's cheerleaders were running laps.
The cheerleaders snaked around the field in a chain for at least 20 minutes, the last one in line continuously sprinting to the front to take the lead.
"Are they being punished because the guys blew the game?" one bystander asked.
"Maybe they lost a bet with UNR's cheerleaders," another guy suggested.
"Then why isn't UNR's team heckling them?" the first guy replied.
It turns out the cheerleaders were being punished, but not because the guys lost. Ten of them were late to the game.
"We were supposed to run a lap for each girl," a sweaty and dejected looking blonde said, "but they gave us a break."
Too bad the UNR football team didn't. UNLV lost 31-3.
UNLV Student Body President Jeff Panchavinin says he'll be sporting a UNR T-shirt at Thursday's Board of Regents meeting, having lost a bet with his counterpart at UNR, Jeff Champagne.
There were no bets riding on the game between new UNR President Milton Glick and UNLV President David Ashley, but Ashley did have Glick in his box during most of UNR's touchdowns.
"That must have been painful," a Sun reporter commented.
"Yes, it was," Ashley conceded. "But not for Milt."
Today and Wednesday, Boyd School of Law students will get an up-close look at how appeals work before the Nevada Supreme Court.
Justices will be hearing oral arguments starting at 9:30 a.m. today and Wednesday in Room 102 at the law school, and will answer students' questions between cases, Dean Richard Morgan said.
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