If Nevada chancellor and regents really care about UNLV, they should step down

Tuesday, April 3, 2018 | 5:15 p.m.

With UNLV President Len Jessup’s announcement today that he’s leaving Las Vegas, what lies in store for the university is anybody’s guess.

But this is for certain: It will be impossible to hire a suitable president for the state’s largest university unless those who pushed out Jessup — Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Thom Reilly, Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Page and board member Trevor Hayes — are gone.

The only acceptable way forward is for those three to resign immediately.

At issue are deep and troubling questions that have been raised about the conduct of Reilly and the board members in Jessup’s resignation message today and in news reports about the situation over the past few weeks.

In his message, Jessup said he was targeted in a public smear campaign that included leaks of sensitive documents to the media by NSHE or the board. He said that instead of following a prescribed set of evaluations on his performance as president, Reilly and Page told him on March 16 that they wanted him to resign or would fire him.

Jessup also alleged that instead of working with him constructively to resolve their concerns over management of the university, his critics on the board subjected him to “unfounded and unjustified” public attacks.

In short, he said NSHE and the board had created a toxic environment that had contributed not only to his departure but to high turnover in the president’s office in recent years.

When potential candidates do their homework on the UNLV job, the ugly turmoil that led to Jessup’s departure will be just a few mouse clicks away. And those three names — Reilly, Page and Hayes — will be front and center.

Potential candidates will further discover that major donors have withdrawn or reconsidered contributions out of frustration over the regents’ oversight of Jessup. One, the Engelstad Foundation, announced it was halting its donations to UNLV for anything other than scholarships until the board was dismantled and restructured.

Details of Jessup’s departure differ — for instance, Reilly countered that Jessup told him March 5 he was fed up and was looking for opportunities elsewhere — but what these past few weeks have shown is that the board and NSHE, with their leaking and behind-the-scenes conniving, have done the one thing they should never do: materially damage the system of higher education in Nevada.

Their actions are dysfunctional and grossly inappropriate, and they’ve crippled any effort to bring another high-quality president to UNLV. Any potential candidate with an ounce of self-preservation skills and a halfway decent internet connection will immediately discover that the situation at UNLV is a shambles and the top job at the university has become a revolving door amid backbiting by the regents. Jessup was UNLV’s fourth president since 2006, and the fifth if you count Don Snyder’s one year as interim president.

In a statement today, Reilly said there would be a “thorough and tireless” search for Jessup’s successor but offered no other details about the process going forward.

But that process, no matter how long it lasts, will be for nothing if Reilly, Page and Hayes play any role in it.

If they refuse to resign, it can only be assumed that they orchestrated this sorry affair specifically because of some as-yet-unknown cronyism or self-interest. If their interest is truly in improving higher education in Nevada — and more specifically, in Southern Nevada — it is incumbent on them to step down.

Jessup wasn’t a perfect president, but he did far more good than bad. The issues raised by Reilly and the regents didn’t nearly reach the level that has led to the ousters of university presidents elsewhere.

Meanwhile, UNLV made more progress in less time under Jessup than it had with any other president in the university’s history. It set fundraising records, exceeded 30,000 in enrollment, launched its medical school and negotiated a shared-use contract for the Raiders stadium, to name a few accomplishments.

So it was shocking to learn last month that he was being targeted.

Although one can debate whether Jessup should have handled the situation more tactfully in his resignation message to the UNLV community, he has laid bare the long-simmering distrust of the regents and NSHE among a large faction of Southern Nevadans.

It’s an issue that must be addressed for UNLV to recover and move forward, and it starts with doing something about a meddlesome and incompetent pair of regents, as well as a chancellor who has demonstrated he is unfit for his position.

Those three must go. If not, the damage they’ve caused could last a generation as other talented administrators leave, donations dry up and projects go on hold.

All Las Vegans have a stake in what happens from here, as the actions of these three individuals could have an effect on the quality of life and economic growth valleywide.

If the ringleaders of this deplorable episode have any honor and respect for higher education in Nevada, they must resign. If they don’t, then Southern Nevada voters, who are suitably upset about what’s been done to their university, should consider recalling the regents.