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Melcher Announces He Won't Run Again For NSHE Board

Kevin Melcher, Elko resident and member of the Nevada Board of Regents, rings the original University of Nevada bell in 2014.
University of Nevada Reno

Kevin Melcher, Elko resident and member of the Nevada Board of Regents, rings the original University of Nevada bell in 2014.

Kevin Melcher was elected to the Nevada System of Higher Education board of regents in 2010.

His six-year term is coming to an end, and he recently announced that he won’t be running for re-election.

Melcher, who also is on the state board of education, which is an appointed position, has seen a lot of turmoil within and about NSHE for the last five years, including allegations of plagiarism by NSHE Chancellor Dan Klaich, internal communications that revealed that NSHE staff had forced an outside firm to doctor a critical report, and allegations of sexual misconduct by a former staff member.

And, to top it off, Melcher and the rest of the board voted to change the funding formula for higher ed in Nevada, which took about $32 million from his home school, Great Basin Community College in Elko. He got a lot of heat for that vote. But he says that the legislature set the budget, and when the NSHE board voted, it was simply to affirm what the legislature had already decided.

Melcher says the turmoil within and about NSHE has nothing to do with his decision not to run again. He fully supports Chancellor Klaich and thinks he was railroaded for political reasons. He is leaving his NSHE seat, he said, because after more than 30 years in Elko, he and his wife have decided to retire in Reno, their hometown.

He has one year left on his term, and he would like to look for ways to get some of the funding back for rural colleges.

Kevin Melcher, regent on the board of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE)

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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Carrie Kaufman no longer works for KNPR News. She left in April 2018)