Candidates for UNLV president come under scrutiny
A weeklong exploration of the triumphs and tribulations of three candidates seeking to become UNLV president began Monday as Georgia Regents University President Ricardo Azziz took center stage.
Azziz has been criticized for planning questionable expenditures as president of the Augusta, Ga., campus and is named as a defendant in an age discrimination lawsuit recently filed by a fired university fundraiser.
When asked about the issue after a standing-room-only public forum at UNLV’s Greenspun Auditorium, the medical doctor and health care administrator explained what happened in the expenditure controversy, which began with plans to add a $75,000 carport to the president’s home.
Approval was not obtained from the board of regents, which owns the home, according to news reports.
The carport issue was a misunderstanding based on “an obscure law,” Azziz said Monday.
“My staff didn’t know they had to get approval from the Board of Regents before they could do work on the president’s home.”
The carport was needed because it would double as a staging area for when events were held at the president’s home, he said.
“We decided not to do it. There was so much hoopla about it, it just wasn’t worth it,” he said.
That same year, Azziz drew criticism for using a university bus and driver to transport guests for his niece’s wedding, which took place at the president’s home. The cost was about $400, which Azziz reimbursed, according to newspaper reports.
Through a University of Nevada, Las Vegas spokesman, Azziz declined to comment on the age discrimination lawsuit, which was filed Oct. 30 by Anthony Duva.
The federal lawsuit alleges Duva’s supervisors repeatedly asked when he would retire before he was fired in September 2013.
Duva was handed a letter stating his position as senior director of development for gift planning was eliminated as part of a workforce reduction policy. The lawsuit said Duva’s position was the only one eliminated.
Azziz will be in Las Vegas for two days, visiting the campus and speaking with various groups.
On Monday, he told forum attendees that he believes in collaboration between faculty and administration and that student services must be a priority.
He also addressed UNLV’s plan to create its own medical school to help meet the needs of Nevada.
That field’s growth “is going to be here for the next 30 years. And the reason is we all want to live longer and better. And I don’t know that 50 years from now people are going to say ‘I don’t know if I want to live longer and better,’ ” Azziz said.
Azziz was gregarious and affable as he highlighted his strengths and experience.
As the head of Georgia Regents University and Georgia Regents Health System, he oversees a $1 billion budget.
His mother was a social anthropologist, and his father was a theoretical physicist — he joked that his “dad was a bit underwhelmed,” when Azziz became a medical doctor.
Azziz also spoke to UNLV’s goal to be a top research university.
That’s not something that will happen as easily as flipping a switch, he cautioned. He described developing the research, the faculty and the national brand of the school as a lengthy journey.
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.
“It’s a journey to greater excellence. If you forget the Tier 1 and you say that we want to be a university that is better known nationally, that produces a greater number of scholars, that has a greater economic impact, that has more research and better students, that has greater opportunities for engaging in creative work, that’s a Tier 1,” Azziz said.
He spoke about his initiatives to increase student retention rates at the Georgia campus.
One plan allows “low level awards” of money to students who can’t make ends meet when faced with tuition, rent and car bills. Azziz said the money isn’t a loan to be paid back.
Azziz will be at a second public forum to be held at 10 a.m. today at UNLV’s Fulton building.
UNLV faculty staff and students also will meet two more presidential candidates this week who’ve caused a stir in positions they’ve held.
Len Jessup, business school dean for the University of Arizona, while working as a lead fundraiser at Washington State University had a close relationship with a female employee he supervised.
Eventually she was removed from his supervision, but embarrassing email exchanges surfaced showing Jessup and the woman exchanging flirtatious notes with each other, according to news reports.
Jessup will visit the campus on Wednesday and Thursday.
John White, UNLV provost, has come under fire in recent days. University officials redacted emails White sent in the wake of a report by UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research on The Education Initiative or margins tax.
The redacted emails were uncovered by journalists Jon Ralston and Dana Gentry through a public records request.
The emails showed that gaming executives were not pleased with the report, which said the margins tax could be an economic boon and lead to the creation of about 20,000 jobs.
The gaming executives expressed their displeasure to interim UNLV President Don Snyder, who called for a review of the report.
The initiative was soundly voted down during last week’s elections.
White will take part in meetings on Friday and Saturday.
A Nevada System of Higher Education search committee will meet Nov. 17 and 18 and decide whether to recommend one of the candidates to the full Board of Regents.
The board will decide whether to hold a special meeting to pick a president. The search committee could also decide not to recommend any of the candidates and seek new ones instead.
Editor Brian Haynes contributed to this report. Contact Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Follow @fjmccabe on Twitter.
