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Stauffer Hall Wong Romesburg

Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NEVADA STATE COLLEGE: Panels interview candidates

Four semifinalists to run school cite varied experience

Four semifinalists for president at Nevada State College at Henderson were interviewed Monday about their experiences with fund raising, educational programming and growing campuses.

A Board of Regents search committee and its community advisory panel heard from Tom Stauffer, a former college president with experience in economic diversification; Melvin Hall, a former education college dean with a record of recruiting economically and ethnically diverse students; Les Wong, an academic vice president at a campus steeped in technology; and Kerry Romesburg, the long-time president of a state college where enrollment has quadrupled during his tenure.

Each semifinalist was interviewed in public session for about an hour. Afterward, the committees met privately for about an hour.

A fifth semifinalist, William Gray of Washington State University, is slated to be interviewed today before the committees select which ones should advance to the finalists' stage. The process, which before the current stages was managed by a consultant, is expected to conclude in mid-August with an appointment by the Board of Regents. The new president could start this fall and probably be paid more than $160,000 a year.

Acting President Chris Chairsell said Monday the school has received 380 applications and 200 students have been admitted for the first semester, expected to begin Sept. 3. Chairsell said school officials will have a good idea in mid-August how many students will be considered full-time and count toward the initial goal of filling 500 full-time equivalency slots funded by the Legislature.

Stauffer, a former president at Golden Gate College in San Francisco and the University of Houston, Clear Lake, volunteered to write a personal check for an unspecified amount to Nevada State College at Henderson if he were selected president. "The selling goes easier after you've done it yourself," he said.

Stauffer, 60, highlighted his fund-raising successes, which include returns from downtown San Francisco real estate investments. He said he would welcome the immediate challenge of finding the required $10 million in private money before work may begin on the Henderson college's first $23 million building.

Romesburg, who has led Utah Valley State College for 14 years, asked committee members whether the private-public funding ratio for the first building would apply to future building projects.

"If that's the case, you are going to have an artificial cap on progress," Romesburg said.

Romesburg, 57, said he has a great job in Utah but would welcome the chance to start Nevada's first state college, which would emphasize training teachers and nurses. Romesburg said he has been successful at private fund raising and getting funding from Utah's legislature.

"I know what higher education can do for people," he said. "I know what this institution can do for Nevada."

Wong, 52, mentioned students and their successes when he talked about what he could bring to the job from his current experience at Valley City State University in North Dakota as well as his higher education work in Colorado and Washington.

Wong said he would recruit students to help him tell the story of Nevada State College at Henderson to lawmakers and donors. He told committee members he is known for "thinking outside the box" on a campus that has given up much of its traditional equipment budget to focus on arming students with a laptop computer and bolster instructional technology offerings.

Wong, interim president of the University of Southern Colorado in 1997, said he was able to keep fund-raising levels stable despite instability at the school. He also secured $8 million in legislative funding for a new building.

Hall, 51, said he has a record of restructuring and improving programs at Northern Arizona University and in California and Maryland, especially recruiting students who traditionally do not sign up for college classes.

Starting the Henderson college from scratch would offer an opportunity to avoid problems and "build into the fabric of the institution" measures to attract and keep diverse students, he said.

Hall said he was a leader in securing a $20 million grant to prepare more Arizona youngsters to go to college.

About 80 people applied for the Henderson job. The Review-Journal formally requested the names of the original pool of applicants.

Tom Ray, the state higher education system's general counsel, said the University and Community College System of Nevada only has copies of applications for 11 semifinalists whose paperwork already was made public. The system's consultant, A.T. Kearney of Alexandria, Va., has access to the remaining applications, he said.

A.T. Kearney consultant Jean Dowdall said the firm would not provide copies of the applications or names of all 80 candidates, saying Nevada's public records law does not apply to the firm.