Nichols recommended for top college position

LAS VEGAS - Interim Chancellor Jane Nichols was recommended by a Board of Regents search committee Friday to become chancellor of the University and Community College System of Nevada.

She was chosen from among three finalists, who had spent the last three days touring university and college campuses.

Robert Perry, chief executive of South Dakota's public higher education system, did not make the cut.

And Richard Rush, president of Minnesota State University, Mankato, on Thursday withdrew his name from consideration.

At its meeting next Thursday and Friday, the Board of Regents will consider the committee's recommendation.

The committee's nomination of Nichols came after a year-long search. The committee began with 44 applicants submitted by a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm hired for $55,000.

Two interim chancellors have led the seven-campus school system since Richard Jarvis resigned in June 1999.

Regent Dorothy Gallagher, a member of the search committee, said Friday, ''Jane is obviously head and shoulders above anyone else.''

UNLV President Carol Harter said, ''There's no question Jane's candidacy was perceived as the strongest. Her integrity, her work so far with the Legislature and with complex political issues where there is no clear answer - she has wended around them skillfully.''

Nichols left her position as vice chancellor of student and academic affairs at the college system in July when regents appointed her as interim chancellor. She had served as vice chancellor for more than three years.

During her two months leading the system, Nichols oversaw an investigation into allegations of misappropriations of funding and mismanagement of school property at the Community College of Southern Nevada. She requested that the state attorney general's office initiate an investigation as well.

Nichols is expected to report the findings of the investigation to regents at next week's meeting.

The chancellor's salary is expected to be more than $200,000.