Chancellor says he’s putting differences with regents aside

CARSON CITY -- Chancellor Jim Rogers said last week that he is putting aside personal differences with certain regents to move forward with issues facing higher education in Nevada.

"I've put it behind me," Rogers said of his dispute with Regent Ron Knecht. "I'm moving on."

Rogers said he and his family have not changed their minds yet, however, about suspending future contributions to the Nevada System of Higher Education because of comments made by Knecht in his written evaluation of the chancellor. Rogers took issue with some of the comments.

But Rogers, a wealthy owner of television stations in several Western states in addition to his job as chancellor, said there are too many important issues facing the system to waste time over personal disputes, particularly the need to seek out donors to help with construction of a multicampus Health Sciences System.

Rogers has had disagreements with a few members of the board during his tenure as chancellor, including Vice Chairman Howard Rosenberg and Regent James Dean Leavitt.

Regents asked to comment on the news reacted favorably to Rogers' decision.

"I'm happy to hear that the chancellor is putting aside the personal feelings he says he has had about various matters," Knecht said. "They appear to have distracted him, the system and the public for about 10 days, and it will be good to get beyond all that and move forward with what's important to higher education in Nevada.

"I'm especially happy to hear that he is focused on getting matching donations for the Health Sciences Center," he said.

Knecht said he hopes Rogers' personal decision to suspend donations to the system does not detract from that fundraising effort.

Board Chairman Mike Wixom said a majority of the 13-member board remains supportive of Rogers and the work he has done for the system.

"I just want to make it clear that Jim has the strong support of the board," Wixom said. "We did the evaluation in June and Jim responded to the process in a positive way. Jim is not perfect but he has accomplished a lot."

Wixom said he hopes Rogers changes his mind about new contributions to the system, but that as a regent he separates that aspect of Rogers' private life and his duties as chancellor.

Rogers said his top priority for the next several months is to secure the private donor money needed to make a required match to a $90 million appropriation from the Legislature for the system's multicampus Health Sciences System.

The system needs to raise $37 million before the state funds can be put to use to expand facilities to train more nurses and other health care professionals, including doctors, Rogers said. The system will try for even more than that, he said.

The goal is to raise the matching funds over the next eight months so the expansion can begin, Rogers said.

"The Legislature has given us three or four years to raise the money but we can't wait that long," Rogers said.