Editorial: Facility comes up short

Tuesday, May 8, 2007 | 7:41 a.m.

The Community College of Southern Nevada's $20 million telecommunications facility opened almost three years ago, but it has fallen well short of its mission to provide state-of-the-art instruction because of design flaws and a lack of equipment.

A story in Sunday's Las Vegas Sun reports that about $75,000 worth of radio and satellite equipment for a rooftop laboratory at the Cheyenne campus facility remains in storage, and that several high-definition televisions have not been installed because the cable and satellite hookups are inferior or nonexistent.

CCSN faculty and staff members told the Sun's Christina Littlefield that design changes created by a push to finish the building under budget resulted in shortfalls, including a photography laboratory in which the number of electrical outlets and the power supply are inadequate.

Internet access has been inconsistent, and a promised 3,500-square-foot film production studio won't even be built because the project ran out of money. One computer-engineering course was dropped because a laboratory was improperly wired, and telecommunications classes that relied on the rooftop laboratory also have been dropped.

Tom Myers, chairman of the CCSN media technologies department, told the Sun it is "amazing how much was originally planned for and then disappeared in the building under the guise of value-engineering."

Faculty and staff say that Bob Gilbert, CCSN's associate vice president of facilities, operations and maintenance, told them electrical outlets, laboratory facilities and other items were eliminated to save money. Gilbert recently came under scrutiny regarding his personal relationships with CCSN construction contractors. Gilbert refused to speak with the Sun about the telecommunications project.

It is inexcusable that, after three years and $20 million, CCSN is forced to drop courses because this facility fell short of its plan. The Nevada Board of Regents, an elected body that oversees the state's colleges and universities, should have Gilbert and CCSN President Richard Carpenter appear before the board and publicly explain how this situation occurred and how they plan to fix it.

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