Secrecy backed by regents is ‘self-serving’

Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007 | 1:14 a.m.

Regent James Dean Leavitt tried to get his colleagues to focus on the big picture Friday when he opened a debate on whether records of university faculty members' outside income should remain hidden from the public.

"This is really a message, from my standpoint, about open government," the Las Vegas attorney said.

That message, however, was ignored as the Board of Regents voted 10-2 to keep the records confidential - after university faculty members warned that disclosing the records would discourage private companies from hiring professors and stunt research opportunities within the fast-growing higher education system.

The policy, recommended by the board's Research and Economic Development Committee, put in writing a long-standing practice that shields faculty members' outside work from public scrutiny.

Afterward, Leavitt said he was disappointed with the vote.

"I respect the fact that there's always two ways to look at things, but I would have hoped that there was more of an appetite to make sure we were carving a policy that favored openness," he said.

Regent Steve Sisolak, who joined Leavitt in voting against the measure, agreed.

"This policy is self-serving for the faculty and ignores the interests of the public," he said.

The policy was crafted following Sun requests last summer for UNLV records detailing faculty members' outside work.

UNLV officials acknowledged at the time that they had no idea how many professors earned income off campus and had no system in place to monitor potential conflicts of interest. Officials have since tightened up the reporting process but have refused to provide the Sun with copies of the outside income disclosure forms they collected from professors, insisting the forms are confidential personnel records.

The new policy affirms that position, but also increases pressure on UNLV and other institutions in the Nevada System of Higher Education to keep watch over their faculty members. Each institution will have to submit an annual report with information such as how many professors earned outside income.

The names of the professors, along with the names of their employers, however, will remain confidential - a stance that will prevent the public from knowing whether faculty members have jobs off campus that pose potential conflicts with their university duties and whether and how those conflicts are resolved.

Vice Chancellor Jane Nichols told the regents Friday that the policy preserves professors' privacy rights while still keeping the public informed about their outside activities.

"At this point in time, it's a balancing act, but we think it's a good one," she said.

Leavitt, however, said that, in a public university system, the public's right to know should always trump a faculty member's right to privacy.

And Sisolak questioned why UNLV and UNR feel the need to keep outside income records confidential when much larger universities such as Ohio State, Wisconsin, Arizona and North Carolina State have policies in place requiring full disclosure of such records.

"These are employees of every taxpayer in the state of Nevada," Sisolak said. "I think the taxpayers have a right to determine whether there's a conflict of interest."