Las Vegas Sun

February 12, 2012

Currently: 60° | Complete forecast | Log in

Echoes of Rogers in letter to governor

New chancellor, like his predecessor, not keen on budget cuts

By David McGrath Schwartz (contact)

Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Chancellor Dan Klaich

Steve Marcus

Chancellor Dan Klaich

Sun Archives

Sun Coverage

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons answers media questions Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, at his Capitol office in Carson City. Gibbons is considering another round of budget cuts and a possible special legislative session to deal with Nevada's fiscal woes.

Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons answers media questions Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, at his Capitol office in Carson City. Gibbons is considering another round of budget cuts and a possible special legislative session to deal with Nevada's fiscal woes.

Jim Rogers

Jim Rogers

The pugnacious spirit of Jim Rogers lives on in the Nevada System of Higher Education — and though it gives the colleges and universities a strong voice against further budget cuts, it bodes ill for the relationship between the system and Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Chancellor Dan Klaich, who took over from the outspoken billionaire Rogers this year, on Tuesday sent a letter to Gibbons that was Rogers redux. Klaich told Gibbons the higher education system would not submit the budget cuts the governor requested last week. The letter went on to argue that the higher education budget should be preserved to help the state recover from the “dark economic time” and urged Gibbons to come up with an alternative to cuts.

When Rogers was chancellor, Klaich was vice chancellor. Rogers was perceived as the straight-talking bad cop, bluntly saying what he thought and protected by his vast television fortune. Rogers’ bluster was seen as being tempered behind the scenes by Klaich’s quiet competence.

It appears that Klaich is willing to take up Rogers’ torch as the champion of higher education in Nevada.

In both content and style, this week’s letter was reminiscent of the series of missives Rogers sent out with frequency over his last year in the post.

“You have said over and over that we cannot tax our way out of this depression. It is just as true we cannot cut our way to excellence in education,” Klaich wrote. “Governor, I know you have made a promise to the people of this state concerning taxes. However, the current situation and further requests for budget cuts will lead to the dismantling of critical structures and functions of higher education that do not serve the state. There must be another way.”

To be sure, the letter eschews some of the more personal attacks that infiltrated Rogers’ writings. In the most glaring example, Rogers wrote a February op-ed for the Nevada Appeal in which he said of Gibbons: “The man has absolutely no regard for the welfare of any other human being.” And: “He is simply a greedy, uninterested, unengaged human being whose only, and I mean only, goal is to see what Gibbons can do for himself and his greedy friends.”

Still, Klaich’s letter was read under arched eyebrows in the governor’s office. Gibbons’ spokesman Dan Burns responded by saying that the governor wants higher education to participate in the budget-cutting process and the door is still open for Klaich to come to the table.

“If higher education leaders choose not to participate, we will make recommendations for them,” Burns said, echoing Gibbons’ response to Rogers’ refusals to comply with budget-cut requests.

But privately, one administration source said Gibbons is “deeply, deeply disappointed” with Klaich’s response. After Rogers left, the source said, “There were specific conversations with regents who said this was not the direction we were going to go.”

Klaich seemed to be surprised by the chilly reception the letter received.

“I didn’t see a confrontational thing in that letter. It was straightforward, constructive, professional and appropriate,” Klaich said. Still, he said he would not remain silent while the system is cut.

“If people expect that because there’s a new chancellor, he’s not going to defend higher education, they are mistaken,” Klaich said.

No similar pushbacks about potential cuts have come from school district superintendents, health and human services advocates or even legislators.

The effectiveness of Rogers’ missives has been debated. After Rogers emerged as one of Gibbons’ most prominent critics, the governor’s administration proposed a budget in January that cut state funding to higher education by 34 percent, the most of any major recipient of state funding. With federal stimulus dollars and legislative action, that was rolled back to 13 percent.

Klaich said Rogers, who owns television stations in Nevada and Arizona, “had a style that was all his own.” But on issues critical to higher education in Nevada, “there was never any difference between Jim Rogers and me,” he said.

Rogers said he applauds Klaich sending a letter standing up for higher education.

“I’m pleased and proud of Dan. This governor ought to be doing something differently,” Rogers said.

(Not one to miss an opportunity, Rogers added that Gibbons “seems absolutely incapable of making a decision, making an original thought. He has one reaction to everything: ‘No more taxes.’ That’s not an answer to every problem we have.”)

UNLV President Neal Smatresk said Klaich’s letter represents the viewpoint of all presidents of Nevada higher education system campuses “firmly and accurately.”

“None of us feel that further cuts serve the people of Nevada or our students particularly well at a time when they need to retool their skills and we need to diversify our economy.”

Jim Richardson, a professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Reno, and lobbyist for the Nevada Faculty Alliance, also applauded Klaich for sending the letter. Budget cuts when the semester is under way would be nearly impossible, and the Nevada System of Higher Education took a disproportionate share of the budget pain last session.

But he disagreed with those who say Klaich’s letter reads like it was written by the same person who wrote Rogers’ letters as chancellor.

“It’s a completely different style. If you read the letter, he doesn’t call anyone an idiot or anything else,” Richardson said. “It was quite measured.”

Sun reporter Emily Richmond contributed to this story.

Discussion: comments so far…

Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.

Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.

No trusted comments have been posted.

Post a comment

Commenting requires registration.

Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy.

If you would like to submit your comment as a letter to the editor, you may submit it here.

Most Popular

  • Viewed
  • Discussed
  • E-mailed
  • Facebook