Talent drawn to former warehouse

By Charlotte Hsu

Monday, March 24, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Housed in a converted warehouse on American Pacific Drive in Henderson, Touro University Nevada isn’t an extravagant place.

The school, which opened in 2004, offers degrees in medical and education fields. It has fewer than 1,200 students. The university’s community is so intimate that students store lunches and dinners in refrigerators in common areas.

Flashy? No.

But these qualities are the ones that have helped the school poach talent away from local public higher education institutions.

Rebecca Mills, UNLV’s longtime vice president for student life, will join Touro this summer as dean of students. In that role, she will oversee services such as financial aid and registration.

“I’m excited about the idea of being part of something that’s new and growing,” she said.

(Ironically, that’s what many out-of-staters say when they arrive at UNLV, which at 50 years old is considered young for a major research university.)

Touro’s Henderson campus is part of a larger nonprofit university system with locations on the East and West coasts.

Michael Harter, a former University of Nevada School of Medicine executive who jumped ship a few years ago to join Touro, said after years of starting new programs at public universities, he was ready to help build a school from scratch.

Harter was recently named senior provost and chief executive for the system’s Western division and leads the Henderson campus and a sister site in California.

A tenacious recruiter, he said he first asked Mills about three years ago to consider Touro.

UNLV will appoint an interim vice president to take Mills’ place temporarily. In fall, the school will launch a national search for a permanent replacement.

(Editor's note: This story has been corrected. An earlier version misstated Harter's title at Touro University.)

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The College of Southern Nevada is also losing a vice president.

Carlos Campo, interim vice president of academic affairs, will step down this summer to head east. Campo, who has been in Nevada for 30 years and at CSN for 10, will be chief academic officer and vice president of academic affairs at Regent University, the Christian institution in Virginia Beach, Va., that televangelist Pat Robertson founded.

Campo’s departure will widen a leadership vacuum at CSN, which is searching for a new president. Since late last year, the school has lost its executive director of public and college relations, its executive vice president of planning and development and its vice president of administrative operations.

The task of finding replacements for Campo and the other officials will likely fall to the college’s new president. Final candidates for the top job are expected to be announced in April.

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With UNLV hoping to start a campus for hotel and hospitality administration studies in the United Arab Emirates, Southern Nevadans might be interested in finding out more about what other American universities are planning there.

Here’s a synopsis:

• In 2004, Harvard Medical School launched a center in Dubai, one of seven states making up the U.A.E. federation. The center offers continuing education for medical professionals and is to begin postgraduate training in a few years.

• In 2005, a branch campus of George Mason University was developed in Ras al Khaimah, the emirate in which UNLV is hoping to open a satellite. The George Mason campus offers half a dozen bachelor’s degree programs in areas including biology and business administration.

• This fall semester, Michigan State University will launch a Dubai campus with an entering class of up to 200 students. Scholars will study areas including construction and project management and communications. The school will also offer graduate programs.

• Also in fall, the Rochester Institute of Technology will open a Dubai campus. Initial offerings will be for graduate students in areas including electrical, computer and mechanical engineering. Undergraduate programs will follow.

• New York University hopes to enroll students at a campus in the emirate of Abu Dhabi in 2010. Eventually, officials expect the campus to serve a student body of more than 2,000. Plans call for the site to offer graduate programs and a wide range of undergraduate majors.

In contrast to some of the other institutions eyeing the U.A.E., UNLV would have a narrow focus, offering two hospitality-related degrees.