LOOKING IN ON: HIGHER EDUCATION

Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.

It comes as no surprise to many at the College of Southern Nevada that Rand Key, executive vice president of planning and development, is on his way to Texas.

The administrator has taken a job at the Lone Star College System, where he'll be working for former CSN President Richard Carpenter. Key had followed Carpenter from Alabama to Wisconsin to Nevada.

Carpenter left CSN this summer to become Lone Star's chancellor.

Key isn't the first employee Carpenter poached from his old stomping grounds. Elva Borsch, his administrative assistant, made the move to Texas with her boss. And, like Key, Helen Clougherty, CSN's longtime executive director of public and college relations, will begin a job at the Houston-area community college district in January.

Lone Star announced this week Key's selection as senior vice chancellor. In his new role he'll oversee the system's administrative and auxiliary operations and supervise units including human resources, information technology and campus security planning.

Students could be asked to help fill the hole the state's revenue shortfall has created for Nevada's public colleges.

In recent weeks, school presidents have floated the idea of asking students to pay up to $10 more per credit, UNLV President David Ashley said Wednesday at a town hall meeting about budget reductions. The surcharge could generate millions of dollars for schools as they figure out how to chop 4.5 percent off their state-supported operating budgets.

Tempting though it may be, the extra charge is not something Ashley supports. With regard to student money, he said, "I do not want to see it go to filling the state gap."

But Ashley said not all presidents feel the same way. If system administrators and regents agree to a surcharge, Ashley would like to see UNLV's portion go specifically toward programs for students.

Jeremy Houska, president of the graduate and professional students' association at UNLV, said students would be more likely to support a surcharge if they knew new services would result.

All that complimentary food. All those free UNLV mugs, key chains and other knickknacks.

As the university tries to find places to cut its budget, "couldn't we change the collective culture?" asked Lois Helmbold, chairwoman of the women's studies department. She posed the question at Wednesday's town hall meeting.

At meetings of the higher education Board of Regents, officials sometimes get goody-filled gift bags. November's cache included a shirt (all cotton, celebrating UNLV's 50th anniversary), a block of notepaper and a magnetic bookmark - or something that resembled one.

With executive salaries continuing to climb at public colleges nationwide, leaders may be tempted to jump from school to school in search of ever-fattening paychecks.

More and more, it seems, college governing boards are trying to woo leaders from other institutions instead of relying on homegrown chiefs, said John Curtis, director of research and public policy for the American Association of University Professors.

According to the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, in 2006-07, the median amount of time a chief executive had put in at a single institution was five years.

At CSN, which is hunting for a new president, faculty members and other campus constituents say they're tired of carpetbaggers. The college has had nine permanent or interim presidents since 1995. Carpenter, who got a raise to head to Texas, stayed for three years.

Curtis thinks faculty members who rise through the ranks to lead an institution are more likely than many outsiders to make a long-term commitment.

Fred Maryanski, Nevada State College's chief, disputes that theory.

He came to the Vegas Valley via the University of Connecticut, where he spent two decades. And he plans to stick around. Here, as president, he has the opportunity to craft and execute a vision, unlike back East.

"When you're taking on a CEO position or a presidency of an institution, it is a commitment," he said. "You're dedicating all your time, all your energy to that position."