Hall ceremony features call to end cuts

With an audience of businesspeople in front of him at Thursday night's Nevada Business Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Paul Jarley made the case for his own brand of higher-education entrepreneurship.

Jarley, the dean of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas College of Business, which maintains the hall, asserted that a fresh round of spending cuts to close the state's budget deficit would not accomplish anything in the end.

"(W)e currently find ourselves in a big hole and the only solution people see is to keep digging -- hoping that there is a pot of gold down there somewhere or that we will cost-cut our way to greatness," he said. "Now is the time to stop digging."

He made his remarks before the presentations of this year's four inductees.

This year's Hall of Fame class, the ninth since the school started the hall in 2002, included casino pioneer Sam Boyd; Keith Schwer, the late economist who headed UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research for more than two decades; Southern Nevada Water Authority general manager Pat Mulroy; and John Ascuaga, who built John Ascuaga's Nugget from a coffee shop into Northern Nevada's largest casino and hotel complex over the course of 40 years. The hall now includes 32 members.

Instead of cutting the budget further, Jarley called for allowing the university to rework its business model around a market orientation.

"Competition is good," he said. "Rather than fear it, we should embrace it. Rather than ask the state to maintain our funding levels, we should demand an entrepreneurial framework for higher education that gives us the flexibility to experiment, the freedom to identify new revenue streams and the ability to align price with quality."

He did not offer specifics beyond pursuing a classic upscale strategy. His vision calls for creating a "high-quality product that attracts the best and brightest while commanding a premium price."

Nor did he lay out a timetable for reorienting UNLV's finances.

The state Legislature is scheduled to begin a special session on Feb. 23 to close an $881 million budget deficit, with Gov. Jim Gibbons having put education budgets on the chopping block. He has proposed a 10 percent reduction for the university system, on top of the 12.5 percent cut last year, leaving the details up to university administrators.

This was enough to spark a student demonstration on Tuesday, with several elected officials showing up to express support for avoiding further cuts.

Schwer entered the hall on an honorary basis because he died Dec. 3, several months past the regular deadline for nominations.

"He was really, in some ways, the face of the Nevada economy to the outside world," Jarley said when Schwer's nomination to the hall was announced two weeks ago.

Schwer was often the source of first choice for people seeking independent insights into the local economy.

Boyd, who died in 1993, was named because of his longtime presence in the industry and his role in developing locals casinos and launching the ventures that led to the creation of Boyd Gaming Corp. His son, Bill Boyd, succeeded him as the head of Boyd Gaming and was entered into the hall five years ago.

Ascuaga, 85, is only the second Northern Nevadan to be named to the hall. He remains president and makes the two-hour round trip drive from his ranch in Jacks Valley to the Reno resort almost daily.

Mulroy, 56, has been the Southern Nevada Water Authority's general manager since its inception in 1991. As the water authority's leader, she oversees $2.5 billion in infrastructure spending,

The ceremony was held at The Mirage.

Contact reporter Tim O'Reiley at toreiley@lvbusinesspress.com or 702-387-5290.