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Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Reader poll
In Today's Sun
UNLV President David Ashley wouldn’t let us shoot a glamour portrait of his desk, so we’ll have to describe it to you instead.
Made from a burl wood, the ornate table is roughly 7 feet long. The front, the side that faces guests, is adorned with a hodgepodge of carved designs — circles, squiggles, Greek columns.
The desk, together with a matching 4-foot-long peninsula, cost $15,736.20, an expenditure that might make UNR President Milton Glick jealous. Glick’s desk in Reno cost just $2,681.
Besides the desk, he has two square-bodied burgundy lounge chairs in his office that cost $1,771.69 apiece.
According to an account manager for Machabee Office Environments, which sold the twins to UNLV, they’re made from a natural cherry wood veneer and high-grade leather and are built to last more than 20 years.
Such lavish furniture seems out of place in Ashley’s otherwise Spartan office, sparsely decorated with old black and white photographs and maps from UNLV’s Special Collections and a framed snapshot of his partner, Bonnie Moore. The president doesn’t even have a bookcase.
“In my judgment, this is the most modest university president’s office I have seen,” Ashley said in an e-mail. “That’s okay with me.”
So why the extravagant furniture?
As Ashley related in his e-mail, a UNLV decorator showed him several tables, and “I chose the current desk because it was the most attractive.” This was shortly after Ashley started at UNLV two years ago.
When the desk arrived and Ashley discovered how expensive it was, he canceled an order the university had placed for a matching credenza/bookcase.
The story behind the chairs is similar. The decorator handled the order, and Ashley didn’t see their price until the furnishings were delivered.
The funding for the furniture, UNLV spokesman Dave Tonelli said in an e-mail, came from “unrestricted grant and contract administrative overhead recovery.”
In layman’s terms, when UNLV researchers land grants and contracts for projects, the funding agency, often government-sponsored, gives UNLV some money to cover overhead costs associated with the research.
The relationship between Ashley’s furniture and research is tenuous, but the reality is that institutions can spend the overhead money on whatever they want.
So, the man doesn't ask about the price? Such high priced items don't go out to bid? What was wrong with the furniture that was there? Then, there's Machabee Office Environments. The most expensive place in town to purchase less than outstanding quality furniture at higher than outstanding quality furniture prices. Yet, it's on the state's no bid list. Meaning, state agencies can purchase from it without going out to bid.
Then there's the "overhead" money used to purchase it. That money is supposed to support the overhead of the department that generated it. That in turn decreases the amount of tax dollars needed to support the department. Sure, the president's office is a part of that overhead. But, a very TINY part. Was the originating grant to the president's office? I don't think so.
Then, there's the issue of monies received by the state are deemed to be as if they came from taxpayers-- and must be used as if it had come from taxpayers-- with respect and carefully. Yet, UNLV says: Oh, not to worry. This money fell from the sky and we didn't know how else to use it. In other words: Such money is okay to squander.
Obviously, Ashley and Rogers don't remember any of the children's fables pertaining to saving for bad times. But then, this is an institution of HIGHER learning. We all know education is not cumulative. (Wait, Rogers is always complaining about freshmen not being prepared. Education is cumulative!)
Outrageous Mr. Rogers! Is this how you run a ship in good and in bad times?
I bought a Hyundai Elantra for 15,800. and it gets 40 mpg at 60 mph on the highway.
I think I will drive over to Mr. Rodgers neighborhood and ask for a rebate on my college fund!
So let me get this straight I should go to college to get a degree so i can get a white collar job so i can squander other peoples money and not be held accountable.
If i did this without a degree it would be called embezzelment and i would be charged! Huh I guess it does pay to have a college education.
Casinokid
Note to self: Please forward one IKEA catalogue to David Ashley.
"The desk, together with a matching 4-foot-long peninsula, cost $15,736.20, an expenditure that might make UNR President Milton Glick jealous. Glick’s desk in Reno cost just $2,681."
A university president has an image to uphold as part of his job. whether these particular desks further their mission or not is subjective.
That said, if we are calling our university presidents to task for the price of their desks, then $2,681 is just as outrageous.
Are you kidding me? $20K for a desk and chairs coming out of overhead, which is sucked off of research grants supposedly to keep the lights on and the garbage cans emptied (which BTW now only happens once a week due to budget cuts)! $20K is more than what it costs to support a PhD student for one entire year at UNLV. I am a professor at UNLV and I have brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in overhead revenue from grants that I've written which have been funded by federal agencies. How much overhead (or revenue of any kind) has Ashley or the rest of his "brain trust" in the upper admin actually brought to UNLV? I share the public's outrage at his wasteful vanity. The Chronicle of Higher Education will have a ball with this one.
If he was looking to impress someone so badly, this "Mr. Ashley" should have gone to Office Depot for a desk - and used the money he saved to load up on Viagra, he would have gotten a much better return on his investment.
Why didn't Mr. Ashley check the price before it was ordered? Need I remind you the desk sits on state property. As taxpayers we all have the right to see this desk, since we own it. I want to see a picture of it. NO EXCUSES Mr. Ashley!!! FYI: You are a state employee.
Perhaps you would like to ask the "Sun" why they did not report the story in it's entirety...the fact that Dr. Ashley refused to build the new President's office proposed for several million dollars and decided to go with simply a new desk..not to mention personally supplying the chair and Conference Table...perhaps the paper likes to slant the truth...and to what purpose? Everyone in the community of Las Vegas wants to better everything for the campus...perhaps the Sun should join in.
Ok mr/ms truth. Also unreported? Ashley took over the office next door to his to create a working and a private office, and remodeled both to the tune of 75K or maybe more. Why do you think the Sun wasn't allowed to take photos. Funny because with the little time the guy is actually on campus he probably doesn't need one office, let alone two. And don't YA THINK that UNLV paid to ship his personal albeit collosal conference table from cali to nevada?
You're way off and know not of what you speak.
Um, no. Unfortunately I do know firsthand about these expenditures, and the physical reality of office expansion should be immediately evident to anyone who walks around the top floor of FDH. there was another staff office to the east of the president's suite, now it's part of the president's suite. He also has two computers, one for each office. Truth.
Your numbers are way off...he saved millions...and he works tirelessly from morning to night...wherever his position needs him to be...if not on campus meeting with legislators, donors, etc. Perhaps if you don't see him it's because you don't get out much. Truth.