Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Regents to discuss chancellor’s allegations in closed video meeting

The Nevada Board of Regents will hold a video meeting next week to discuss Chancellor Melody Rose’s allegations of abusive behavior by the board’s top two officers, the Sun has learned, but the public won’t be allowed to watch.

The closed session, scheduled for Wednesday, will be between the 13-member board and legal counsel and will focus on Rose’s complaint that regents Chair Cathy McAdoo and Vice Chair Patrick Carter undermined her authority, discriminated against her based on gender, micromanaged her and committed ethical and code-of-conduct violations in an orchestrated effort to oust her.

Reportedly, the sole purpose of Wednesday’s meeting is for the regents to receive and discuss legal advice. Shortly after Rose filed her complaint on Oct. 4, regents hired a Las Vegas law firm to conduct an independent investigation into her accusations.

Nevada’s open meetings law allows exceptions for officials to privately discuss matters involving “potential or existing litigation.” 

Regents John T. Moran and Amy Carvalho have called for open meetings regarding how the regents should proceed during the course of the investigation, but they have failed to receive the five total votes necessary to schedule such a meeting.

Meanwhile, McAdoo and Carter have rejected calls from Moran that they step down from their officer positions on the board while the investigation takes place.

In a letter Friday to the board officers, Moran suggested that their refusal to relinquish their positions was paralyzing the system. Although the oversight structure requires the chancellor to work with the chair and vice chair in selecting and prioritizing the regents’ agenda, he said, communications have ceased between Rose, McAdoo and Carter.

Those three have said little publicly about the situation beyond McAdoo and Carter issuing a statement saying they supported the investigation, but the regents have canceled or postponed three meetings since Rose lodged her complaint. On Friday, Carter sent the Sun a text message criticizing Moran for missing regents’ meetings, but did not address Rose’s accusations or the apparent gridlock in management and oversight of the system.

No public notice of Wednesday’s meeting had been posted on the Nevada System of Higher Education’s official website as of early afternoon Saturday. State law requires public notice of most meetings to be posted three business days prior to the meeting, but the Sun could not immediately determine whether the posting requirement includes the type of legal advisory session scheduled for Wednesday.

The regents have drawn criticism in the past for a lack of transparency in dealing with problems in the system. For example, when former Regent Kevin Page was revealed to have grossly abused his authority by trying to intimidate UNLV into breaking its rules and allowing a relative of his to take a class without passing a prerequisite course, the regents said little publicly and took no official action on Page’s behavior. When it was further revealed that Page shared confidential documents on personnel matters and other sensitive issues with a relative outside the system, the regents did nothing beyond the chair sending members a message instructing them not to distribute confidential materials beyond themselves and personnel in the system. 

Lack of transparency was one of the complaints that prompted Nevada lawmakers to approve a 2020 ballot question calling for the regents to be removed from the state constitution as a precursor to restructuring the board and the Nevada System of Higher Education. 

The ballot question failed narrowly statewide despite passing in Clark County, where UNLV supporters have been particularly critical of the regents for what they describe as a pattern of secrecy, mismanagement and a failure to hold leadership accountable for bad behavior.

Moran referenced these criticisms in his note Friday to McAdoo and Carter, saying he hoped that by stepping down they could serve as “the catalyst for the much needed reform.”