Stability at CSN helm: 3 choices

By Charlotte Hsu

Published Wednesday, April 23, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Updated Wednesday, April 23, 2008 | 3:05 p.m.

The College of Southern Nevada has had five temporary or “permanent” presidents in as many years.

So it’s no shock that stability is a topic that keeps popping up in conversations about who will lead the school next.

On Thursday, a search committee is to recommend one of three 60-year-old finalists to the university system regents. The regents are to vote on that recommendation May 1.

Two of the three finalists vying for CSN’s presidency — Berton Glandon of Arapahoe Community College in Colorado and Laurence Spraggs of Broome Community College in New York — say they want to make CSN the capstone on their long careers. They view the community college, one of the 10 largest in the nation, as a destination, not a steppingstone.

In fall 2005, Arapahoe served 7,132 credit-earning students and Broome served 6,230 compared with CSN’s 34,551, according to a database run by The Institute for College Access and Success. Arapahoe and Broome each have one main campus and separate learning centers; CSN has three main campuses and a dozen learning centers.

Glandon and Spraggs say although their colleges are much smaller than CSN, their decadeslong experience in higher education has prepared them well for the job.

The third candidate, interim President Michael Richards, represents a different kind of stability. He has led CSN since his predecessor left last summer. Members of the CSN community say they like that Richards is familiar with CSN and the challenges it faces.

Of the three applicants remaining from a whittled-down field of 54, Richards is the only one who would not need to learn about the college from scratch.

Here’s a look at each of the contenders and what they could bring to CSN.

•••

Berton Glandon has not moved around much in his career, which could be a selling point for a college community tired of seeing presidents come and go. (CSN’s last permanent chief, Richard Carpenter, ditched CSN for a job as chancellor of the Lone Star College System, in the Houston area.)

“My wife and family have talked about this for a great extent, and we’re looking to stay in Las Vegas as long as they want me there,” Glandon said.

CSN, with its mammoth size and array of programs, is “the epitome of where somebody should culminate a career,” he added.

Glandon arrived at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, a suburb of Denver, in 2002 after serving as president of Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore., for nine years.

Glandon’s track record dealing with budget cuts could make him an attractive candidate.

CSN, like other public colleges, has slashed its spending in response to a state revenue shortfall that has continued to worsen in recent months.

When Glandon began at Arapahoe, he walked into a similar situation. At the time, Colorado’s public colleges were leaving positions unfilled and laying off employees in response to a state fiscal crisis.

In that atmosphere, Glandon laid off some employees and eliminated vacant positions that had duties overlapping those of other staffers.

Glandon said under his watch Arapahoe doubled the size of its nursing program without new funds by entering into partnerships with local hospitals that helped bankroll nursing students’ education. In exchange, the students promised to work for the facilities funding their training.

Glandon’s entrepreneurial approach could catch the eye of regents. CSN gets less state money per student than Nevada’s other three community colleges.

Erica Hastert, president of Arapahoe’s faculty senate, said Glandon kept an upbeat attitude, even during budget cuts.

“He’s always been a very positive leader and very creative in finding ways to meet and solve the problem,” she said.

Glandon initially did little to reach out to rank-and-file faculty, Hastert said. His governing style “is not bottom-up,” she said. In recent years, though, Hastert said, her boss has worked hard to be more inclusive.

She said she would be sad to see Glandon go.

•••

Michael Richards applied last year to be president of a Texas college in his predecessor’s new district. Richards said he withdrew his application after deciding he wanted to stay at CSN.

“I feel a great deal of loyalty to this institution and to the people here, and particularly to our students,” he said. “So many of them are up against a lot of things ... They’ve got multiple jobs, they’ve got families, they’ve got lots of responsibilities they’re trying to cope with. I think I’m in a unique position in providing stability to the organization so those students can succeed.”

Of the three candidates, Richards has spent the least amount of time at the helm of a college.

Still, he believes his varied experiences in higher education have prepared him well for such a job. He has been at CSN since July 2005, serving as vice president for academic affairs before becoming interim president in August 2007.

His career has also included stints overseeing technology, planning, and government and public relations for various colleges.

Alok Pandey, immediate past president of the school’s faculty senate, calls Richards a “good communicator” who seeks faculty and student input in important decisions including the recent budget cuts.

Like many others at CSN, Pandey is tired of leadership changes at the college.

“Every time a new leader comes, they change the entire administration, and everything starts from scratch,” Pandey said.

As interim president, Richards helped revive a popular apprenticeship program that his predecessor had ended. Program participants earn college credit while training in trades such as plumbing and carpentry.

Richards has also moved forward CSN’s plans too add a fourth campus.

But not everyone is pleased with Richards.

Stan VerNooy, a math professor who has been at CSN for a decade, calls Richards a “nonentity.”

“He’s been there, but he’s been an empty suit.”

VerNooy said Richards has done “nothing whatsoever” to change what VerNooy describes as an eerie corporate culture at CSN. Faculty meetings, he said, could easily double as meetings “at Intel or Wal-Mart or General Motors.”

Administrators talk about balancing budgets and creating new programs, rarely discussing how professors could teach better or help individual students, VerNooy said. The focus seems to be on money and bureaucracy, not on education, he said.

Richards said although cost-cutting has been a major issue given the college’s financial situation, the desire to improve the quality of education at the college is what drives each decision he makes.

“I know how important the classroom experience is from two perspectives — one, as an instructor, and another as a student,” he said. “Anything I can do to enrich that environment and to make that better for the instructor and the students really benefits the overall mission of this institution. And that’s where a lot of my emphasis has been.”

•••

People who know Laurence Spraggs say his next job will probably be his last.

Douglas Garnar, a faculty member who has been at Spraggs’ Broome Community College in Binghamton, N.Y., for 37 years, said Spraggs has made it clear that he plans to stay wherever he goes next.

“This is not one more in a series of moves,” Garnar said. “This would be his last move. I think it’s fair to say he’s said to me, ‘Doug, I want to make this my last presidency.’ ”

“I think Larry wants to spend his last few years overseeing the operation of a big campus,” said Robert Moppert, chairman of Broome’s Board of Trustees.

If his trail of job applications is any indication, Spraggs seems eager to move on to a new job. He is or has recently been a finalist for the presidency of five other colleges.

He said although he is also interested in other schools, CSN is “an amazing college with amazing opportunities, and I’d like to be part of that for a long time.”

Moppert speculated that Spraggs is looking to leave in part because of a strained relationship with Broome County Executive Barbara Fiala. The two engaged in a highly publicized dispute over how to spend tobacco settlement money. Spraggs fought unsuccessfully to use the funds on a new college building to house communications programs.

“Larry probably felt that the damage that was done was irreparable,” Moppert said of Spraggs’ relationship with the county official. The county helps fund the college.

But Spraggs said he and Fiala have since worked together on other projects. He said he is simply ready to take on a new challenge, hoping to lead a larger institution.

Moppert said Spraggs has played a big role in increasing the college’s enrollment by boosting the school’s reputation locally through advertising and public relations. Spraggs also led the development of a 10-year master plan that lays out how the college will improve academically and expand its facilities in the future. Garnar said the president and other leaders solicited heavy faculty input in drafting that plan.

“He understands the importance of collegiality in terms of decision-making, giving all the stakeholders — faculty, staff, students — an opportunity to have an input in key issues the campus is facing,” Garnar said.

At Spraggs’ direction, Broome has focused on sustainability and technology, promoting online education and allowing students to download lectures and other materials.

“He’s done a great job for us,” Moppert said.

(Editor's note: This story has been corrected. In an earlier version, the name of the community college system where CSN's former president took a job was referenced as "Lonestar College System" instead of its appropriate name, "Lone Star College System.")