Arizona candidate for UNLV president talks qualifications
The second of three candidates to be UNLV’s next president told a packed audience of faculty, students and alumni Wednesday that he was ready to take on the mandate of making the university a prestigious research school.
Len Jessup, dean of the University of Arizona’s Eller School of Management, stressed that public higher education institutions such as the University of Nevada, Las Vegas must try and free themselves of government money and focus on creating revenue through large fundraising campaigns.
Jessup, 53, stressed that his experience as a fundraiser at Washington State University gave him a unique perspective on what it takes to raise the money needed to make a university a renowned research school. UNLV is striving to earn a Tier 1 ranking as a research university, a prestigious designation from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
He said raising money through large campaigns must be focused on corporations and foundations, but particularly focused on private individuals who are either successful alumni or local people who have an affinity for the university.
He noted that UNLV hasn’t had a capital fundraising campaign in nearly five years, which he said is too long between campaigns.
Prior to leading Arizona’s business school, Jessup held several administrative roles at Washington State University, including dean of the college of business and vice president of university development. He also worked at Indiana University.
His successes at Washington State University were marred when embarrassing, flirtatious emails surfaced showing his close relationship with a woman who was at one point under his supervision.
Following Wednesday’s forum, Jessup explained the situation as it happened 10 years ago. Pullman, Wash., he said, is a small town. His position as lead fundraiser for the university and having become recently divorced created “a lot of interest in me both professionally and personally,” he said.
He said that he and the woman shared a mutual interest. “I was divorced and she was separated and physically living out on her own. I disclosed that to the president, my supervisor, and he created some daylight between us so that if we chose to, we could pursue a relationship. And that just intensified the rumors and speculation,” he said.
That interest led to newspaper reports of the relationship.
Looking back, Jessup said that while he believes he did the right thing in informing the president, there were lessons learned. “Whether in a small town or a big city, in a prominent role like that it’s not enough to be careful. You have to be extra careful, extra diligent about what you do and say.”
UNLV provost John White will meet with the public at forums on Thursday and Friday.
White has come under fire recently in the wake of a report by UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research on The Education Initiative. The report asserted the so-called margins tax could be an economic boon and create about 20,000 jobs. The initiative was soundly voted down in last week’s elections.
Emails made public over the summer showed gaming executives expressing their displeasure with the report to Interim UNLV President Don Snyder, who called for an academic review.
White’s emails have not been made public and his role remains unknown.
When asked about the issue, Jessup said he felt UNLV’s administration, including Snyder, handled the situation the best they could.
“Academic freedom is very important and (is) something that needs to be preserved and protected fundamentally. You’ve got to find a balance between that and the new model for American public higher-ed, (which) is more partnerships externally and you’ve got to be responsive to those external partners. So that’s the tension that any university leader faces,” Jessup said.
On Monday and Tuesday, Georgia Regents University president Ricardo Azziz toured the school and met with numerous members of the university and higher education community. Azziz drew fire in his current position for attempting to build a $70,000 carport at the president’s home at the Georgia school without permission of the board of regents, a plan that was ultimately scrapped. He’s also been criticized for allowing dogs to be used in university medical experiments.
A Nevada System of Higher Education presidential search committee will meet Nov. 17 and decide whether to recommend one of the candidates to the full Board of Regents. A special meeting of the Board of Regents is set for Tuesday when a president could be chosen.
Contact Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Find him on Twitter: @fjmccabe
