HOME PAGE
|
Friday, February 04, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
College administration grows
A proposed four-year school in Henderson with no revenue has all but named its second official.
By Natalie Patton
Review-Journal
Henderson's proposed state college is on the path to getting its second $100,000 executive without first having a budget to support its growing payroll.
Founding President Richard Moore, who makes $175,000 a year, plans to take his confidant and former vice president, Orlando Sandoval, away from the Community College of Southern Nevada two months after he vowed not to raid the ranks of the booming college he led for five years.
Although Sandoval's job comes without a written description, his new salary would carry a 15 percent pay increase over what he has been earning at the community college. As the proposed state college's interim vice president for planning and administration, Sandoval would make $125,000 a year.
Before Moore arrived at the community college, Sandoval's salary was in the $50,000-a-year bracket.
Sandoval's move to Henderson's proposed state college appeared to be a done deal Tuesday morning, but Nevada university system interim Chancellor Tom Anderes nixed the arrangement Wednesday night after questions arose about its appropriateness.
Moore's hiring in December also happened under a cloud of controversy. Three of 11 university regents questioned whether the university system should have conducted a full search rather than handing the state college job to Moore.
Moore's appointment is the subject of an ongoing attorney general's probe.
Anderes on Thursday defended Moore's attempt to get Sandoval on board quickly. Moore and Sandoval must begin planning for a campus that faces an uphill battle in the 2001 Legislature for millions of dollars in start-up and operating costs. Anderes also said Sandoval's salary is justified, even though the college vice president does not have a college degree.
Sandoval, who joined the community college in 1985 as its physical plant director, turned in his community college resignation on Friday, put in his last day on Monday, showed up for the state college job on Tuesday and asked in a Wednesday letter that his community college resignation be rescinded.
Sandoval, who on Thursday was collecting vacation pay, said he is eager to get to work on planning for Nevada's first state college.
His job would include everything from helping city of Henderson officials pinpoint a college site to helping Moore with fund raising. "I see myself assisting Dr. Moore in trying to get the planning portion done," he said. "It would be a little bit of everything."
Sandoval's fate now lies with the Board of Regents, which meets next week in Las Vegas.
Anderes said the state college would borrow money to pay Sandoval's salary for the next five months from the university system's administrative offices. Moore has promised to pay it back when pledges turn into donations, Anderes said.
"This is just crazy," Regent Steve Sisolak said Thursday. "We had to go to the students and ask them for more money to pay a technology fee, but we've got the money to guarantee a salary for an institution that doesn't even exist."
In December, the Board of Regents approved the concept of opening Nevada's first state college in Henderson -- an idea brought to them by Henderson politicians who persuaded the 1999 Legislature to set aside $500,000 for studies and planning.
Moore's salary and benefits, as well as those of his secretary, will eat up the bulk of that appropriation. The money also must be used to pay for a legislative committee's expenses, including the work of a consultant gathering public comments at forums that will continue across the state for the next few weeks.
Anderes said Moore is not using system funds for other expenses, contradicting what Moore said last week.
Moore intends in the coming weeks to lead regents and other officials on tours of colleges after which he would like to model the Henderson state college. Tour stops will include the highly selective Claremont McKenna College in Southern California.
Money to pay for regent trips, Anderes said, will come from board accounts. He did not know how much the trips would cost.
"We're doing what we can as a system to help support the movement," Anderes said about plans to build the state college. "The message I got from the majority of the board was that they want us to help out Richard Moore."
Sisolak is not convinced the state is ready to open a new four-year college because other higher education problems persist, including disproportionate state funding for Northern Nevada schools. He also said no one has supplied evidence that teaching students will be cheaper at a state college in Henderson.
"This is just coming at us way too fast," Sisolak said.
The regent's tough questions and those of faculty members earlier this week at a public forum at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas troubled Moore to the point that he called Sisolak his personal enemy and an enemy of Henderson state college.
Moore later apologized for the comments, Sisolak said. Moore did not return phone calls Thursday.
E-mail this story to a friend:
Give us your FEEDBACK on this or any story.
BEST OF LAS VEGAS
Fill out our Online Readers' Poll
|
Printable version of this story
Orlando Sandoval, shown at the Community College of Southern Nevada's Charleston campus, plans quit his job as vice president to help plan Henderson state college. Richard Moore, the state college's founding president and the community college's former chief, had vowed not to swipe officials from the school for the new project. Moore and Sandoval would make a combined $300,000 per year even though the Legislature hasn't approved any funding for the state college.
Photo by Jim Laurie.
|
