The Nevada System of Higher Education today scheduled a meeting of its board of regents to consider a severance with its Chancellor, Melody Rose.
A special meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 1, 2022 for her to leave NSHE that same day. A board meeting agenda shows Rose could get $610,000 from the severance.
As part of the agreement, signed already by Rose, NSHE, the board and Rose are also agreeing to not disparage one another.
The severance comes after a concluded complaint filed by Rose alleging hostile treatment by certain regents.
The regents hired a law firm to investigate a voluminous complaint filed by Rose late last year.
“I believe that the new Board of Regents officers, Chairwoman [Cathy] McAdoo and Vice Chairman [Patrick] Carter, ran for their leadership positions deliberately to marginalize me and to limit my effectiveness, and that their ultimate intention is my dismissal,” Rose alleged, as first reported in the Nevada Independent. “The abuse I have experienced since the leadership turnover has been persistent and unrelenting…”
While the outside investigator concluded the regents breached NSHE’s ethics codes, there was insufficient evidence for many of her claims.
Rose has been celebrated among Nevada political leaders – Gov. Steve Sisolak has tweeted his support of her leadership – but tension with regents exploded last fall after her complaint became public.
Rose, and some of her supporters, criticized the external investigation.
Jennifer Hostetler, Rose’s attorney, said the investigation was incomplete.
“The investigation here primarily focused on gender discrimination and determining whether gender discrimination occurred,” she said. “It did not fully vet the chancellor’s other claims including those related to violations of the Board of Regents bylaws and handbook and the chancellor’s contract.”
The special regents meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Rose started as chancellor in June of 2020.
