No new chancellor hired for Nevada’s higher ed system

Nevada’s higher education board decided Friday not to hire a new chancellor, instead ending the search process and pursuing an interim appointment.

With a 5-8 vote, the Board of Regents failed to approve a motion to hire Lawrence Drake II. Regents Stephanie Goodman, Laura Perkins, Joseph Arrascada, Susan Brager and Byron Brooks voted yes.

Then, regents voted unanimously to discontinue the search and begin the process of looking for an interim chancellor.

Arrascada, who led the search committee, called Drake “an exceptional gentleman” and spoke in favor of his qualifications.

He said that by not voting to appoint him as chancellor, the system will be waiting an additional year to find a permanent leader.

And, he added, the reputation of the board and Nevada System of Higher Education will take another hit.

“We are passing on a very strong leader that we may not see again in our next search,” Arrascada said.

But other regents expressed concerns with the finalists’ qualifications and the search process.

After regent Carol Del Carlo made a motion to begin the process of looking for an interim chancellor — saying she would like to see UNLV executive vice president/provost Chris Heavey considered — the motion was later amended so as not to include any specific names.

A couple of regents said it looks bad to bring up an individual’s name right after discontinuing a search.

“This entire charade just seems contrived,” Arrascada said, noting it was like the goal was to sabotage the search.

The decision follows a chancellor search committee’s 4-1 vote on Thursday to recommend Drake for the job.

But many advisory committee members — which include more than 30 faculty, staff, student and community member leaders — said Thursday they could not recommend any of the finalists.

The chancellor leads the state’s public higher education system that includes eight schools and about 100,000 students.

Drake is interim president of Bethune-Cookman University, a historically Black private university in Daytona Beach, Florida. He was previously a division president and CEO for the Coca-Cola Company.

The other two finalists for the job were Charles Ansell and Kate Marshall. Ansell is a Reno-based vice president for research, policy and advocacy at the nonprofit Complete College America. Marshall was a White House senior adviser to governors, and before that was Nevada’s lieutenant governor and state treasurer.

Dale Erquiaga, the former state superintendent of public instruction, is acting chancellor under an 18-month contract that continues through the end of this year.

He was hired after Melody Rose, who was chancellor for 19 months, resigned in April 2022.

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