EDITORIAL: Nevada university officials need to foster stability at UNLV

Len Jessup stepped down as president of UNLV last week after a little more than three years on the job. The school will now begin a search for its sixth president since 2006.

Mr. Jessup announced he was leaving to become president of Claremont Graduate University in California. Rumors had swirled in recent weeks that he had clashed with some university regents and Thom Reilly, the new chancellor of the Nevada Higher Education System. Mr. Reilly last month announced the creation of a chief operating officer position to address “operational deficiencies” at UNLV.

Two weeks later, Mr. Jessup resigned.

Mr. Jessup arrived on campus in January 2014 and was instrumental in launching the new UNLV medical school. He cultivated deep ties with donors and garnered immense publicity for the university when he led the school’s successful push to host one of the 2016 presidential debates.

The tendency may be to finger point and scapegoat in response to Mr. Jessup’s departure, but a more productive response would be to chart a way forward for the university that encourages stability and progress. Several proposals involving the Board of Regents — including shrinking the size of the panel and reassessing its constitutional status — were in the pipeline long before the Jessup dust-up and deserve serious consideration. But in the immediate future, Mr. Reilly must focus on how to slow the UNLV presidency’s revolving door.

The average tenure of a university president, according to a 2006 survey by the American Council on Education, is 8.5 years. Since Carol Harter retired in 2006 after 11 years of service, UNLV has burned through four chief executives, although one was in an interim role. Upward mobility may help explain some of the instability, but UNLV’s turnover rate in the corner suite remains a problem and makes it more difficult for the university to implement the improvements necessary to lift its academic standing.

Mr. Reilly said Wednesday that he’s in no hurry to find a replacement for Mr. Jessup. “I wouldn’t want to make a decision in the summer,” he said. “I don’t want to have meeting without students here.” Mr. Reilly said he envisions a similar process to the one currently unfolding an the College of Southern Nevada: the appointment of an acting president followed by a national search.

Any such search must be conducted as transparently as possible. The new president will face many challenges, both financial and academic, and should have a master plan for nurturing student achievement, promoting workforce development and helping strengthen and advance the local community. He or she must also be savvy at navigating the political rapids that arise out of the calm, while also expressing a long-term commitment to the university.