Brooks, Nigam vie for regent in District 3

Byron Brooks and Swadeep Nigam are facing off for the District 3 seat on the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents in the Nov. 3 general election.

Kevin Page, who has been on the board since 2009, isn’t seeking re-election. The district’s boundaries include parts of Las Vegas and Henderson.

Regents govern Nevada’s public higher education system and its eight schools, including UNLV and UNR, Nevada State College, four community colleges and Desert Research Institute. Those schools serve more than 100,000 students.

Brooks — a U.S. Army combat veteran who was previously a government contractor for the U.S. Departments of Defense and State — ran for state Senate in 2018. He has a small business called Lduna Aesthetics and Wellness Center in Henderson, and is also involved with community suicide prevention efforts.

Brooks, who has been on the school organizational team for three years at Twitchell Elementary School in Henderson, told the Review-Journal in late August: “My wife and I have a very long history of education advocacy in the community.”

Nigam, who’s director of business development for Paul Padda Law, currently serves on the Nevada State Board of Osteopathic Medicine. He previously ran for the Board of Regents in 2014, and for state Assembly in 2012 and 2016.

He was Clark County Republican Party’s treasurer from 2007 to 2009. And he served on Nevada Equal Rights Commission, and founded and was president of the South Asian Political Network Alliance.

Nigam said he established a scholarship about a decade ago at the Nevada Policy Research Institute that’s awarded to a Clark County graduating high school senior.

COVID-19 response

Nigam said in late July the biggest issue currently facing the university system — and the state as a whole — is “current conditions related to COVID-19” and growing case numbers.

School reopening decisions and protocols should rely on recommendations from health care professionals, “rather than political or bureaucratic considerations,” Nigam said. He added it should be an system-wide approach.

As for the system’s $137.8 million in state budget cuts spurred by COVID-19, Nigam said he’s “really disturbed” by the Board of Regents’ decision to approve a temporary student surcharge this spring, especially after just approving a tuition increase in December 2019.

The surcharge may not lead to additional revenue as expected if student enrollment drops, and since there will be more health and safety-related expenses, he said.

Nigam said he’d favor auditing the system’s budget instead. “We must review every expense, line by line, and see where we can control the cost or cut the cost.”

One area could be capital costs, including new construction projects that could be delayed, Nigam said, or looking into bond covenants.

Brooks said he has the understanding, experience and ability to make sound decisions quickly and in an unprecedented environment “like we’re living in now.”

In terms of school reopening plans, “there is not a one-size-fits-all for everyone,” Brooks said, noting he thinks it’s a great idea for individual campuses to create their own reopening phases, but hopes the system provides resources to them.

With budget cuts, the situation is a “tough one,” Brooks said. “Schools are already operating at what could be considered a minimum financial stability level. Now, we’re cutting more things.”

He said he’s not privy to all of the conversations regents have had regarding budget cuts and would defer to those who’ve been on the board a long time, but noted it’s imperative to provide training to newly-elected regents.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.