By Charlotte Hsu

Mon, Oct 13, 2008 (2 a.m.)

The College of Southern Nevada is strengthening its background check policy after discovering that an employee accused of trying to steal CSN money had criminal convictions.

The worker allegedly attempted to deposit thousands of dollars from the college into a private bank account in August. Rumors about the incident have been swirling at CSN in recent weeks.

The school fired the employee after discovering he or she had failed to disclose convictions when applying to work there. The college is not naming the suspect because law enforcement officials including CSN police are still investigating the case. CSN’s police chief said on Friday that no arrests have been made.

In the meantime, CSN is working to implement background checks on staff who work with money or deal with “sensitive” information such as employee or student Social Security numbers, according to a college news release.

CSN requires all job candidates to disclose their criminal history but requires background checks only for those applying for child care and public safety positions.

Spokeswoman K.C. Brekken said background checks on all employees might not be necessary. For many employees, she said, the information checks produce has no relevance to their ability to perform their jobs.

• • •

Five candidates for the state Legislature and one for the Clark County School Board laid out wish lists for higher education at a candidate forum Thursday.

David Parks, running for State Senate District 7, wants to improve the higher education system’s research capabilities.

“We’re constantly trying to (get) high-tech industries to locate in Nevada, but we don’t have the ability, the research facility and a higher education system that can support it,” he said.

Mo Denis, candidate for State Assembly District 28, said without top-notch universities, Nevada’s best high school graduates would attend out-of-state colleges.

But contenders’ suggestions about how they would fund improvements were often vague.

State Sen. Minority Leader Steven Horsford, who is trying to keep his District 4 seat, offered some specifics, saying he wanted to prioritize education over other state services when deciding how to cut the budget in the next biennium.

“You can’t just cut across the board rather than figuring out what the priority should be,” he said.

But sparing state colleges and universities from cuts is not the same as increasing their funding. Staying afloat is not improving.

Allison Copening, who is running for State Senate District 6, suggested raising money through a state lottery.

The other candidates at the forum at Desert Pines High School were Morse Arberry Jr., who is running for State Assembly District 7 and Ronan Matthew, who is running for the Clark County School Board.

The event drew about five dozen people in an auditorium that could have held many more.

• • •

Steve Lake, 58, of Summerlin has visited 499 four-year colleges, four of those in Nevada.

He’s been to UNLV, Nevada State College, Touro University Nevada and the Art Institute of Las Vegas. But he hasn’t been to the University of Nevada, Reno.

So naturally, when planning his 500th campus visit, he approached the school up north to see whether it would be interested in hosting him.

But Lake said after talking to a UNR official, he decided against making that school his 500th.

That honor will go instead to Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, which will commemorate Lake’s visit today with a ceremony that will include remarks from the school president.

A lack of enthusiasm on the part of UNR helped Lake make his decision. Unlike Our Lady, UNR was unwilling to commit to holding a special event in conjunction with Lake’s visit.