Nevada higher ed chancellor rapped for personal style
As the state looks to improve education as a way to create new industry and jobs, some academics and lawmakers are asking a difficult question: Is Dan Klaich the right person to lead the state‘s higher education system?
The chancellor has been at the center of recent controversies involving the Nevada System of Higher Education, the latest of which has prompted an investigation. Rick Trachok, chairman of the Nevada Board of Regents, announced last week that he hired a consultant to look into concerns about Klaich‘s handling of a consultant‘s report.
The Review-Journal has reported that Klaich commissioned an out-of-state consultant to review the College of Southern Nevada and recommend a way for his office to continue governing the state‘s four community colleges. But emails among Klaich, the consultants and other state higher education officials, obtained through the state‘s public record law, show the chancellor didn‘t like the consultant‘s criticism of his operation and demanded a rewrite.
Ultimately, the report never was shown to state lawmakers, as Klaich said was the initial plan.
Klaich, a longtime leader in the state‘s higher education system, is known as a fierce advocate and skilled politician, but critics point to the ongoing controversy as an example that his style and emphasis on protecting the current system have created an atmosphere hostile to new ideas and discussion of valid reform.
Mario Martinez, a former University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor, said he experienced firsthand Klaich‘s approach in squelching divergent viewpoints.
Martinez, vice chancellor of strategy at the National University System in San Diego, said that in 2012 former state Sen. Steven Horsford, who was chairman of a legislative committee studying the formula used to divvy up state money for higher education, asked him to testify about his research in higher education.
Martinez said he prepared slides about improving productivity and setting state priorities, using comparisons with other state systems.
But Klaich, he said, told him he didn‘t know what he was talking about and that testifying wouldn‘t be worth his time.
Martinez said he agreed to present his research to lawmakers only after Horsford assured him of his support. Horsford, who went on to serve a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives and now works at R&R Partners, did not respond to a request for comment.
Soon after he testified, Martinez said, he was aced out of opportunities to do more research about higher education with the Lincy Institute, UNLV‘s think tank. Martinez said he can "only put two and two together" but believes Klaich intervened to stop his study.
Lincy officials confirm that Klaich‘s office did move against Martinez. In a written statement, Lincy said the institute and Martinez talked about research, but "mutually agreed to end this discussion when it became apparent that the NSHE leadership was pressuring the UNLV president to stop Dr. Martinez‘s governance study from going forward."
University of North Texas President Neal Smatresk, who was UNLV president at that time, could not be reached for comment for this article, but in March he praised Klaich.
"I always felt comfortable calling Dan and asking a question, challenging a decision or having a difficult conversation. We had plenty of them," Smatresk said. "We were friends and colleagues who knew how to work together and I think that‘s critical."
Klaich said any suggestion that he tried to intimidate Martinez or punish him for testifying is "categorically false."
"I have never intervened with anyone regarding Dr. Martinez‘ research," Klaich wrote in an email.
Klaich added that he told the regents and committee that he felt Martinez‘s research "did not fairly characterize the status of higher education reform in Nevada."
"I characterized Dr. Martinez’ research from other states in a positive light. It was his failure to connect that research to reforms under way in Nevada that troubled me," Klaich wrote. "My comments were intended to connect Dr. Martinez’ positive research on the national scene with the work being led by the Nevada Board of Regents. I provided my comments directly to Dr. Martinez."
Martinez disagrees.
"He‘s very good at getting his way behind the scenes," Martinez said. "I think you need to be politically astute and an advocate for higher education as he has been, but you‘ve got to have people who have expertise in higher education surrounding you as well so you‘re not just left for your political skills. I think that‘s where we find Dan now."
Martinez isn‘t alone in feeling the heat.
In 2012, after the regents voted to approve that controversial funding formula, Klaich issued what became known as a "gag order" to college and university presidents. The implication: Anyone not supporting the board‘s decision would be fired.
In a March interview Klaich said it was important for higher education to present a united front to the Legislature, and that everyone had already had their say during a four-year debate on the formula leading up to the regents‘ decision.
"You have the right to discussion and we encourage discussion, we encourage divergent views, but when a decision is made you support the decision," Klaich said. "I stand by what I did."
A partnership strained
Late last year Klaich was accused of plagiarism when his office presented the Legislature with a report about the creation of a competitive grant program. The report incorporated large sections of a Brookings Mountain West draft report on the subject without attributing the source.
Brookings Mountain West is a partnership between UNLV and the public policy nonprofit Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. The study in question was privately funded, however, and the sole property of Brookings.
The alleged plagiarism and intellectual property theft caused students, faculty and experts on academic integrity to question Klaich‘s understanding of basic principles of academia, and emails obtained by the Review-Journal show Klaich moved to put a lid on the issue after the newspaper started asking about it.
"Hope you don‘t throw me under the bus," Klaich last December wrote to Mark Muro, the Washington director who helps oversees the UNLV-based operation. "We released things too early, apologized, gave credit. But plagiarism. I don‘t think so."
The controversy died down after Brookings said it had accepted an apology and just wanted to move past the controversy. The regents also issued a statement clearing Klaich and his staff of wrongdoing.
But Klaich in an email made it clear that he blamed Muro for a newspaper article about the controversy, and wouldn‘t soon forget it.
"If you wanted to you could have stopped (the Review-Journal story.) That‘s what a partner would have done so I will take that lesson away," Klaich wrote.
Muro declined comment for this article.
Brookings‘ contract with UNLV is up for renewal in September.
That contract is signed by Klaich.
Contact Bethany Barnes at bbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Find her on Twitter: @betsbarnes.
