Regents unanimously approve renaming CSN campus
A three-year effort to rename a campus of the College of Southern Nevada cleared its final bureaucratic hurdle Thursday when Nevada’s higher education board approved the plan unanimously.
The decision by Nevada’s 13-member Board of Regents switches the name of the school’s campus at Cheyenne Avenue and Pecos Road to the “North Las Vegas Campus.” The plan was passed without discussion from the panel.
North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, who has long lobbied to attach his city’s name to CSN, promised to raise between $15,000 and $17,000 in private funding to pay for new signs at the school.
“This is contingent on him finding money for the sign(s),” Regent Andrea Anderson told the panel on Thursday, briefing members about a committee meeting last week in which the proposal was passed. “It’ll not cost CSN anything.”
Lee believes final approval now clears the way for CSN to lure more investment from lawmakers and companies as state leaders aim to develop a skilled workforce.
“To be able to have the City of North Las Vegas and the College of Southern Nevada similarly branded will increase opportunities for businesses and residents,” Lee said.
Regents stalled an earlier version of the plan in November. Under that proposal, the community college would have allotted as much as $119,000 from its maintenance and operations budget to modify seven city and street signs at each of the school’s three campuses.
That plan faced heavy criticism from faculty and students — a survey carried out by the school in May 2015 found that 58 percent of its 7,200 participants opposed the switch, primarily because of the cost. At the time, the school was grappling with a 15 percent budget cut that affected everything from maintenance services to library resources.
CSN Professor Alok Pandey said at last week’s committee meeting that faculty supported the second effort since the school won’t spend any of its own money.
“Since the college is not (incurring) any cost … I feel comfortable supporting this,” Pandey said last week.
Contact Ana Ley at aley@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Find @la__ley on Twitter.
