State education officials stall plan to rename CSN campuses
State education officials Monday stalled a proposal to rename the three campuses of the College of Southern Nevada, dealing a blow to a yearslong campaign by North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee to attach his city's name to the school.
Under the plan — endorsed by CSN President Mike Richards and a 16-member advisory panel of local community leaders — the community college would have allotted between $30,000 and $45,000 to changing one dominant sign at each of the campuses to include location information, such as city and street. The proposal was approved by CSN's Institutional Advisory Council in September after a subcommittee of the group pushed the plan two months earlier.
A six-member committee of the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education considered the recommendation Monday but opted not to vote on the proposal. It is unclear if the regents will ever vote on the plan.
"It kind of shows that the community isn't as important to the community college system as we would like them to think of us," Lee said after Monday's meeting, noting that he hopes the group will eventually "understand that this is very important for all concerned."
Lee launched an aggressive campaign more than two years ago to bolster his city's influence over the school, and attaching North Las Vegas' name to CSN has been key in his plans.
IAC vice chairman and subcommittee member Jose Solorio, a North Las Vegas native who has fervently sought to change the campus names to better showcase CSN's community ties, called the board committee's inaction a "personal affront" and accused the group of wasting the IAC's time.
Supporters of the plan said the rebranding would help the school draw more investment from lawmakers and private companies, while critics argue that CSN has bigger priorities at hand — the college, for instance, is about to start assembling a road map that will lay out its top objectives for the next seven years.
"I just don't see this item...being at the same level of concern as the strategic planning and workforce development which you are about to address," Regent Sam Lieberman said at Monday's meeting. "As much as I see some merit in this moving forward in the future, I'm not sure that now is the time or that it is the main priority for what CSN needs."
Contact Ana Ley at aley@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Find her on Twitter: @la__ley
