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February 12, 2012

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LOOKING IN ON: HIGHER EDUCATION:

Gibbons trying to muzzle Rogers? No way, adviser, regents say

By Charlotte Hsu

Sunday, July 20, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Jim Rogers, chancellor of Nevada’s university system, began his most recent weekly memo on the budget cuts by saying he was “disturbed, but not intimidated or deterred” by Gov. Jim Gibbons’ efforts to “muzzle” Rogers’ writing.

The charge was that the governor had tried to shush the chancellor through Gibbons’ adviser Monte Miller. Miller, Rogers said, had spoken with some of Rogers’ bosses on the Board of Regents with the intention of trying to control what Rogers wrote.

Miller has, in fact, been in touch with some regents, including Jason Geddes, Ron Knecht and Michael Wixom. But none of these three thought Miller was trying to shut the chancellor up.

“I have never heard anything that amounted to trying to — what’s the word here? — muzzle or control what Jim writes,” Knecht said. “Monte has been quite reasonable and sensible and critical of some of Jim’s writings, as have I and many others, but I think Jim should probably step back, take a deep breath, calm down and try to refocus.”

Rogers’ spitfire nature has, in the past, contributed to rocky relationships with regents including Knecht. Though the chancellor and his bosses have gotten along better as of late, Rogers’ latest rant tested some regents’ patience.

“The tone, the personal criticism, the vendetta that he has against Gov. Gibbons, that I think is really inappropriate,” Knecht added.

Rogers wouldn’t specify exactly what prompted him to point his finger at Miller.

Ben Kieckhefer, the governor’s spokesman, wondered whether it would even be possible to muzzle the chancellor.

“Monte’s not acting under the governor’s direction or anything like that,” Kieckhefer said. “There’s no coordinated effort to — what did he say? — muzzle or quiet the chancellor.”

“Muzzling Jim Rogers is a veritable impossibility.”

• • •

When Nevada State College asked recent high school graduates and next year’s seniors what came to mind at the mention of the four-year school, some responded “community college.”

To clear up that and other misconceptions, the school’s new marketing campaign focuses on explaining what the 6-year-old college in Henderson is: a state college that grants bachelor’s degrees.

The institution is placing three 6-foot-square signboards at McCarran airport that list contact information for “Nevada’s Four-Year Public College.” The college is also placing a billboard with that same message near UNLV.

And Nevada State College is running 10-second spots on local radio stations and 15-second promos at movie theaters.

The initiatives are scheduled to launch this week and continue into 2009. Together, they will cost NSC about $160,000.

• • •

UNLV is rolling out a new cleaning schedule to save money, and by Rogers’ account, the changes are pretty scary.

“The university,” he wrote in a recent memo on budget cuts, “has even cut janitorial services so the facilities will no longer be cleaned on a daily basis.”

Well, yes and no.

Under the new plan, which officials expect to implement in fall, janitors will stop emptying individual office trash baskets daily. Employees will have the option of dumping food and other items in a central garbage bin that will get daily attention.

But Gerry Bomotti, UNLV’s senior vice president of finance and business, made it clear that custodians will continue tidying bathrooms and common areas every day.

Limiting office trash removal, along with other cutbacks, will free custodians to work in high-priority areas such as restrooms, Bomotti said. As a result, UNLV will need fewer janitors.

“Think of an office building where one hallway has 20 offices on each side, and then think of the time to unlock the doors and empty the trash on a daily basis — this is very time-consuming,” Bomotti said in an e-mail.

“I don’t have final figures on the estimated savings, but I expect they will be very significant — well into six figures,” he said.

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