Chancellor Jim Rogers' latest attacks on Gov. Jim Gibbons " in a newspaper column and a television interview " were far beyond the pale in many ways and were part of a pattern of absolutely improper behavior toward the governor and many others that has badly damaged higher education in Nevada. The chancellor should do the only things he can now do to help higher education: apologize and resign.
It was clear from the start, about five years ago, that his appointment was a mistake. His tenure began with "Memogate," a series of very inappropriate memos by him criticizing the regents who hired him.
He reflected a problem endemic in corporate governance: executives who effectively select and control their boards, instead of vice-versa as things should be. Although he was new to education administration, he presumed to direct the board that hired him and to which he was legally accountable.
He had been hired for his ability to contribute money to higher education and, presumably, to raise money from other wealthy donors. There is little or no evidence that his tenure has greatly increased donations to Nevada higher education.
Three years ago, in the gubernatorial campaign, he began very inappropriate and imprudent personal attacks on Gibbons. Rogers' attacks start from the simple-minded assumption that increasing the public-sector portion of the economy is the same thing as promoting the public interest. I have discussed these matters with him and found him unable to incorporate into his thinking the basic and irrefutable fact that every dollar taken in taxes is an act of destruction of human well-being that must be at least fully offset by a greater benefit from the public spending that the dollar facilitates in order for the spending to be in the public interest.
He exhibits the weakness of many statist liberals who obsessively focus on the public-spending benefits they can imagine (the images they can conjure up with words and the symbols with which they seek to identify themselves), while being able to completely ignore or just deny the damage that is inherent in the taxes that public spending requires. He does not understand that the fundamental question of public policy is always that of finding the balance point between the social and human costs and benefits of government.
Because finding such a balance guides Gibbons and other limited-government conservatives, and because Rogers cannot even grasp that concept, in frustration he lashes out with hate, lies and childish vituperation against the governor. Gibbons is merely doing his job as governor right and keeping faith with voters who elected him by trying to keep the public sector from metastasizing the way Rogers in his ignorance and self-aggrandizing desires wants it to. Because Gibbons has the power to check Rogers' statist longings -- a restraint that a man with a vast media empire and hundreds of millions of dollars in personal wealth is not used to " Rogers makes his attacks truly vile and intemperate.
When Rogers rails incontinently against those who oppose increased taxes because the public sector is already as big or bigger than it should be to serve the public interest, he ignores that he and most other statist liberals are the real inflexible ideologies for never having suggested any tax cut at any time, nor any circumstances in which they would support one. So, he and his ilk criticizing other folks for simplistic thinking or empty slogans is the height of irony, because their appetites and lusts drive them always to mindlessly demand "more."
People can disagree on public policy without being uncivil the way Rogers is. I have publicly disagreed with the governor's proposal to cut higher education proportionately more than other parts of the state budget " but we are both completely civil about this difference.
Besides keeping up the nasty drumbeat against Gibbons (who has been very diplomatic in response), Rogers has viciously attacked Regents James Dean Leavitt (two years ago) and Bret Whipple (three months ago). In between, in response to a six-page, single-spaced performance review I made public, detailing some of his shortcomings, he canceled a $3 million grant to the University of Nevada, Reno for a math building and tried to blame me. Various editorials took him to task for seeking to blame me.
He has also used his money and media power to campaign for and against certain folks seeking election to the Board " technically within his legal rights, but also imprudent for the chief executive of the system. He has meddled inappropriately in internal affairs of system institutions, even as he claims to eschew such micro-management. Recently, he attacked parents and voters of Nevada very condescendingly. The attacks on Gibbons were also a real affront to State Sen. Bill Raggio, who set up the meeting between Rogers and the governor as a favor to higher education.
In sum, Rogers has been guilty of many transgressions that have badly damaged higher education in Nevada in order to promote his private agendas and satisfy his egotistical drives " including a number of items that, individually, would be a firing offense for any other education executive in any other state. He does not understand public policy and he is totally ineffective as an advocate. He is now a continuing major liability and risk factor for all the dedicated folks who work hard for higher education and for its cause.
To reclaim any sense at all of human decency, he should abjectly apologize to everyone in higher education, to the parents and voters of Nevada, and to all those he has offended, including especially the governor, and ask their forgiveness. And he should do the only other service he can now do to help higher education: resign.
- Carson City resident Ron Knecht is Douglas County's representative on the University and Community College Board of Regents.
