Chancellor Melody Rose, right, attends a Nevada System of Higher Education special meeting of the board of regents Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022.
Saturday, April 2, 2022 | 2 a.m.
The Nevada Board of Regents accepted the resignation of the state’s higher education chancellor, Melody Rose, but not without being roundly criticized by students, current and former regents and others in a highly charged meeting Friday.
Rose’s resignation comes on the heels of an investigation into a complaint she filed last year against the board’s chair and vice chair, accusing them of gender discrimination, intimidation and retaliation in an orchestrated effort to drive her out of her job. Investigators found insufficient evidence to support Rose’s legal claims but noted that the board had engaged in unprofessional behavior, was factionalized politically and had possibly committed ethical violations.is effective immediately and comes just 19 months into her four-year contract.
In a 9-4 vote, regents agreed Friday to part ways with Rose and pay her $610,000 in severance, less than two years of her base annual salary of $437,750. The agreement bars Rose and the regents from making comments disparaging “the honesty, integrity, ethics, or professional competence and reputation of one another.” It also releases the regents from any further claims against the board.
Students spoke during the public comment period preceding the vote, saying they felt “heartbroken” and “disappointed.”
“I feel as though the truest advocate for students is leaving us,” said Caren Yap, student body president for the undergraduate student government at UNLV.
Regent John Moran III also spoke highly of Rose while blaming the board for now having to look for the sixth temporary or full-time chancellor to lead the Nevada System of Higher Education since 2016..
“I know unequivocally it is a very sad day for many people in the state of Nevada that are either involved in higher education or not,” Moran said.
“As regents, we have all failed the system,” Moran added. “We have all failed the state and everyone associated therewith. … We are drivers of workforce development and we have failed tremendously. We have failed ourselves as well.”
Moran said the board needed to stop meddling and micromanaging NSHE. It needs to “hire the best and then get out of their way and let them do their job.”
Mary Beth Sewald, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce who served on the search committee before Rose was hired, called the board’s vote Friday an “embarrassment.”
“I can attest that she was a supremely qualified candidate,” Sewald said. “Your actions are damaging the reputation of the entire state.”
“This system is broken, and this body cannot be trusted,” said former regent Lisa Levine, who called on Attorney General Aaron Ford to fully investigate the board, calling it the “greatest example of government waste.”
Those who voted in favor of accepting Rose’s resignation were Regents Jason Geddes, Chair Cathy McAdoo, Laura Perkins, Joseph Arrascada, Patrick Boylan, Byron Brooks, Vice Chair Patrick Carter, Mark Doubrava and Moran — who clarified he was only voting yes because Rose wanted to resign.
Boylan said he favored Rose’s resignation but did not want to award the severance payout. If NSHE were a normal business, he said, Rose would have been fired “the first day for what she did.”
Regents Donald Sylvantee McMichael Sr., Amy Carvalho, Carol Del Carlo and Lois Tarkanian voted no.
Rose, who was on vacation, was not at Friday’s meeting Friday, but she has seven days to change her mind if she so desires, special counsel William Peterson said.
Vice Chancellor of Academic & Student Affairs Crystal Abba will take over leadership while McAdoo interviews presidents and faculty senate chairs for recommendations on an interim chancellor.
The board voted in February to accept the results of the investigation into Rose’s allegations and reinstate McAdoo and Carter to their officer positions, from which they’d stepped down after the investigation was launched. And despite legal counsel advising them to abstain from the vote to avoid an ethics complaint being filed, several regents who had been named in the complaint, including McAdoo and Carter, voted to end the investigation.
Rose had drawn past criticism from some regents including for her implementation of COVID-19 mandates on state college campuses — a decision some regents said was made before they were consulted properly.
The regents’ chief financial officer, Andrew Clinger, answering a question posed by Brooks, said the severance funds would come from multiple sources in the system administration budget. Clinger could not say for sure whether the payout would have an impact on student fees.
At a press event on Wednesday, Gov. Steve Sisolak, who is a former regent, said he was disappointed in Rose’s resignation.
“I’m a big supporter of Chancellor Rose,” he said. “I think she’s done a great job.I think that’s one of the problems that we have in our education system. We’ve got a chancellor and superintendents of public schools dealing with elected school board members and regions that sometimes don’t understand the overall impact of decisions that are made.”
Sisolak also expressed concern about the $610,000 buyout, saying that the state is short of funding for higher education.
“But also, we need to put personalities aside and do what’s in the best interest of students. And sometimes I think we lose sight of that,” Sisolak said.
When Sisolak was on the regents about 20 years ago, he recommended the board reduce its size.
“I wanted to go to seven or nine,” Sisolak said. “Thirteen, I think, is just unwieldy. It’s too many people that are on that board. I think that we need people with a certain amount of expertise that are on that board. It’s become far too political … so I would be in favor of revamping the way that those members are chosen and elected.”
