It’s time for a change in Nevada higher education

The Nevada State Higher Education’s (NSHE) search for an interim chancellor demonstrated that policy doesn’t always align with reasonable measures to support the recruitment and hiring of top tier executives. On June 30, the Board of Regents voted to “fail” a five-month long chancellor search. The search was conducted through a consulting firm and the board’s search committee. After that vote, the board approved a motion which called for the chair and vice chair to follow policy and bring a nominee forward to the board for an interim chancellor position within a 60-day period. Keeping in mind that none of the 88 candidates who applied for the position could be reconsidered, Vice Chair Joe Arrascada and I set out to accomplish this task.

On July 1, we began a series of lengthy conversations regarding this new search and quickly settled on a few key components for moving forward. First, we decided that we would gather input from as many people throughout the NSHE system as possible. Utilizing our board staff, email invites were sent to institutions for the purpose of personnel scheduling a meeting with us. These invites were for everyone, from the presidents to classified staff at the institutions. Second, we chose to use a Predictive Behavioral Model to identify the characteristics and traits that were most sought after by NSHE constituencies throughout NSHE and stakeholders in our community. Finally, we purposefully created informal meeting environments and encouraged candid conversations regarding the search, the board, the system office, and the institutions. Our first scheduled meetings began on July 17 and conversations with constituencies continued through Aug. 21. In total, we spoke 106 people comprised of system administrative faculty, student government, regents, presidents, state of Nevada executive branch, NSHE stakeholders, institution executives, faculty senate, classified council, and the chancellor’s cabinet.

Those conversations provided insight to the differing characteristics and traits that are desired by members of NSHE. Depending on the position of the individual within the system of NSHE, degrees of characteristic importance varied. The top characteristics and traits, along with the ranking of value, included diplomacy, communication, and collaboration, the ability to develop strong working relationships, an understanding of NSHE financials, business realities and the ability to manage successful change.

Armed with these values, we started to look at bridging the gap between candidates who had demonstrated an interest in the interim chancellor position and how they matched up against the desired characteristics and traits. One candidate was immediately identified however, as our 60-day deadline to bring a nominee forward grew closer, that candidate withdrew.

We then reached out to stakeholders, including previous regents, and presidents, to see if they had suggestions of individuals we should contact. While their suggestions were helpful, none of the suggested individuals were interested in the position. Six days prior to our deadline, I called someone with a tremendous amount of experience who matched up with the characteristics and traits that we were seeking. Five days before the deadline, this person confirmed interest in the position. One day before the deadline, contract negations were complete. Nine hours before the deadline, this person withdrew.

With a deadline looming, we reached out to our current officer in charge, Patty Charlton, to gauge her interests in moving into the role of interim chancellor as she is already providing the board with our immediate needs. With her existing experience and deep institutional knowledge, we moved forward in presenting her name to the board.

This path would allow more time to seek a permanent Chancellor, and the Board is provided with an opportunity to have conversations about current policy and procedures that should be changed to enable a better process for NSHE executive searches in the future.