Nevada college advisory boards draw criticism
By Bethany Barnes and Francis McCabe, Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Board of Regents last week created local advisory councils for the community colleges in the state, a move some education watchdogs fear is just window dressing to appease advocates who want local communities to have more say in the colleges.
The unanimously supported establishment of the Community College Institutional Advisory Councils on Friday comes in the wake of a heated battle to restructure the governance of higher education in the state.
In a showdown this summer, a panel of lawmakers rejected the idea of taking the community colleges out from under the Board of Regents.
Advocates argued the state needed a two-tier system that that would separate the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Nevada, Reno and the Desert Research Institute from the state’s two- and four-year colleges.
The concept was that community colleges should be rooted in their communities. Oversight and advocacy end up neglected when the colleges are bundled in with the universities, proponents of local control argued.
