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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Board Of Regents

In one stroke of idiocy the board of regents proved what Nevadans had thought for fifty years; that is, that the board of regents should be disbanded and sent home and that a new governing system should be developed, that is, one that appoints the members of the board of regents.  Picking Snyder to be the president of UNLV, albeit only for a short time, is the most outrageously incompetent decision the board has ever made.  During my tenure as chancellor I was privileged to serve under Mike Wixom, whom I considered to be the best board chairman I had ever known, and I have served on more than thirty major boards.  Although I’ve never served under present Chairman Kevin Page, I’ve observed his tenure through act after act that proved him to be inadequate, incompetent and totally over his head in every issue the board faces.  I realize that Page did not by himself put Snyder in office, but Page’s lack of leadership certainly allowed for Snyder to sneak through and assume a position that now will have no substance at all.


1 comment:

  1. An intemperate comment that keeps going back to your preferences, your experience and your convenience. If all rests on your implicit judgement without any objective evidence then your own experience needs to be considered including your performance as chancellor. You did not distinguish yourself for leadership as chancellor, notably your inability to attract talented managers and academics to the system. You hired Ashley but are to be commended for firing Harter and then Ashley, two commendable decisions but alas UNLV did not steal steal a march on greatness during your reign. Successful business people and very wealthy individuals believe that public office is a snap and problems can be solved with the same tactics they used to build profitable companies. They typically fail and largely because public agencies rarely have the benefit of convenient outcome measures such as profit and require immense persuasive energies to deal with complex political interests. An educational system -- notably a university -- is even more difficult to guide since there is little control over critical personnel due to tenure (without which there is no university). Uncle Jimmy, more thoughtful analysis would get the discussion out of the Fathead Follies.
    William M. Epstein, Professor

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