Chancellor search, constitutional role among issues facing NSHE regent candidates

By Jeniffer Solis

Nevada Current

The responsibilities of the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents include overseeing the system’s sizable budget, setting tuition prices, and hiring a chancellor and school presidents.

Currently, the board consists of 13 elected nonpartisan regents serving six-year terms. However, state lawmakers passed a bill last year that will reduce the number of regents to nine and shorten the length of their terms to four years, effective after the 2028 general election. That means any regents elected this year will only serve four years before they’ll need to run again in 2028.

Regents oversee four community colleges, two universities, one research institute, and one state college that all operate on an annual state budget of more than $2 billion.

This year, Clark County voters will have the chance to vote for a new regent in the Board of Regents District 1. However, only one of the two candidates vying for the position has a visible campaign: Executive Director of The American Institute of Architects and former lobbyist for the Vegas Chamber Carlos Fernandez.

Despite the lack of campaigning or fundraising by Fernandez’s opponent, Matthew Bowen, Fernandez said he’s adhering to a long-held maxim among political candidates and running his race “as if I’m losing.”

From January through June his campaign has raised nearly $30,000 in contributions and spent about $26,000.

Fernandez has earned the endorsement from a number of local unions, including the Culinary Union 226 & Bartenders Local 165, International Brotherhood of Teamsters 631 & 14, Ironworkers Local 416, UA Local 525, and SMART88. He also received endorsements from the Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Hispanics in Politics, and the Nevada Faculty Alliance.

Fernandez said while campaigning he’s often asked what the Board of Regents does.

Regents have no shortage of issues to address, including finding a permanent chancellor.

In recent years, the board has come under fire for its handling of chancellor searches. NSHE has had three chancellors in five years. The most recent chancellor, Melody Rose, left with a $610,000 buyout after just 19 months in the role. In November, NSHE reached a $110,000 settlement to oust a chief of staff who’d only been on the job three months.

“A lot of times we have these search failures because it’s hard for us to be able to recruit solid chancellors into roles, because current requirements need us to publicly announce who these people are before they even have a job,” Fernandez said. “So we’re putting people’s professions at stake when we’re trying to transfer from a different system.”

Fernandez said he believes one of the best ways to successfully recruit a candidate is to promote from within the Nevada higher education system.

Another concern for the regents is trying to restore higher education budgets devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In December, the Board of Regents voted to raise tuition and fees by 5 percent to help pay for 11 percent raises for NSHE professional employees.

Fernandez said he supported the raise, adding that competitive salaries are necessary to recruit qualified faculty and staff that will elevate Nevada schools.

“It’s important because our higher education institution employees have not been given a raise in a while, and it makes it hard for us to be able to compete for the best,” Fernandez said.

And also looming is an ongoing effort to remove the Board of Regents from the state constitution, which would give the state Legislature the ability to review and change the governing organization of public universities.

Voters in 2020 narrowly defeated a statewide ballot measure to remove the Board of Regents from the Constitution, but will get another chance this November.

During his work with the Vegas Chamber, Fernandez said he supported the prior attempt to remove the Board of Regents from the Nevada Constitution. His position hasn’t changed, he said, adding the amendment would ensure that the governance of higher education in Nevada remains fully accountable to the public and the state legislature.

If elected, Fernandez said his top priorities would be to increase accessibility to higher education, improving student success through advising and career services, and emphasizing workforce preparedness in academic programs.

“We need to look at higher education as the largest workforce development program in the United States,” Fernandez said. “We want to be able to recruit bigger businesses, different types of businesses, into the state, and that only helps provide more opportunity to those that are already here.”

Matthew Bowen, the other candidate for the Board of Regents District 1, did not reply to requests for an interview with the Nevada Current. His campaign reported zero campaign contributions over the course of his campaign.

According to Bowen’s LinkedIn, he attended the University of Central Arkansas, currently works as a managing associate at Pacific Advisors, and his previous jobs includes heating and air conditioning technician and as a sales specialist at an Arkansas Toyota dealership.

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Jeniffer Solis was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada where she attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas before graduating in 2017 with a B.A in Journalism and Media Studies.