Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDUCATION:

Seize this opportunity to change higher education, regents told

UNLV Student Walkout (2-9-10)

UNLV students protest proposed budget cuts Tuesday, February 9, 2010. Launch slideshow »
Chancellor Dan Klaich

Chancellor Dan Klaich

Nevada businessman Bruce James knows something about inefficient bureaucracy. He was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002 to run the General Printing Office and to stop the flow of red ink. Two years later he succeeded.

And he was tapped by Gov. Jim Gibbons to lead his Spending and Government Efficiency advisory panel.

So James can speak with some authority about the topic.

This is the advice he has given the Board of Regents to help the financially beleaguered Nevada System of Higher Education address its future:

Ask the CEOs of Nevada’s largest businesses and industries to describe what the workforce will look like in five to 10 years, and where the greatest needs will be, so the higher ed system can focus on meeting those needs and give them fiscal priority.

“At the end of the day, what our universities and colleges are doing is preparing people to earn a living,” James said. “You would be best served by having a very clear picture of where the job opportunities are for the graduates of the future, and (those programs) get the lion’s share of support.”

If someone is interested in a degree “in some esoteric area,” the private-sector schools will respond to that need and fill it, James said.

“Your job is to make sure that the administrators in higher education keep their eye on the future,” James said. “And just because someone likes something or it’s been around for 30 or 40 years, it’s your job to make sure it doesn’t continue in perpetuity.”

In other words, he said, think of the higher education system as a struggling business in need of a massive overhaul, rather than a collection of institutions to be preserved at all cost.

He said he’s never confronted the sorts of financial challenges facing Nevada’s higher ed system and, for that matter, most of the state’s public agencies. In other situations, he said, he was focused on how businesses and government entities could be more fiscally responsible with the dollars they had. In Nevada’s case, “there is no money,” James said.

Indeed, times are tight. During the recent special session of the Legislature, lawmakers ordered a 6.9 percent reduction in higher ed funding. Presidents of the individual campuses are convening committees to make recommendations for potential reductions (as well as outright elimination) of some programs, departments and services.

James’ remarks seemed relatively well-received by the audience — composed mostly of higher ed faculty and staff — until late in the presentation, when he veered into more controversial terrain.

“It infuriates me when I see people in higher education saying this (fiscal crisis) is the end of the Earth, it’s terrible ... we have to dismantle everything we’ve built,” James said.

“Hallelujah!” James shouted, jarring the audience. “This is a great and glorious time. This is the time we can actually look at what we’ve done and how we’ve allowed this stuff to build up, and take affirmative action.”

A glacial silence seemed to spread across the room, as many audience members exchanged pointed glances.

Regent Cedric Crear appeared incredulous.

“You’re actually saying ‘Hallelujah’ to the fact that we’re potentially closing institutions, putting people out of work?” Crear said. “I kind of find it hard to believe that’s really what you mean.”

If that’s truly James’ perspective, then he’s out of touch, Crear said, to loud applause from the audience.

Chancellor Dan Klaich said later the “hallelujah” remark was unfortunate, as it “undercut what I thought was a really excellent presentation to the board. But by and large, we were sitting in a room of people whose jobs, families and livelihoods could all be affected. It didn’t seem to be the right thing to say in that particular crowd.”

Klaich said some of James’ suggestions were being considered before his presentation, including asking business leaders to review higher ed programs.

The fiscal realities and the intrinsic academic missions of the various campuses don’t have to be mutually exclusive, Klaich said.

“Of course we’re different from a business,” Klaich said. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have an obligation to spend money wisely.”

James acknowledged in the wake of his presentation to regents that his “hallelujah” remark had fallen flat.

“I think it might have been a ‘Howard Dean’ approach to things,” said James, referring to the former Vermont governor’s ill-timed scream during a speech in Iowa that hurt his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. “In retrospect, I would have been wise not to do that.”

But James defended the underlying message of the moment — that with crisis comes opportunity.

“We have to recognize the reality, and not wish it wasn’t so,” James said. “With limited money, we really need to stop spending on things that aren’t crucial to our future.”

CORRECTION: This story was changed because the original version attributed a remark to the Board of Regents chairman, James Dean Leavitt. The "hallelujah" remark was actually said by Nevada businessman Bruce James. | (March 18, 2010)

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