Robert Maxson was one of the most important and controversial figures in the history of UNLV. He died recently at the age of 89. His influence had long been felt in Nevada, and will continue to be.
Maxson was born in 1936 in Arkansas. He earned a doctorate in education from Mississippi State University and entering academic administration. He was a dean at Appalachian State University and Auburn, then senior vice president of the University of Houston system. When he was at Houston, Leonard Goodall departed from the UNLV presidency. Maxson got the job and came to UNLV in 1984. The university was getting over a nasty fight over a new university code that divided the administration and faculty. Maxson had to do some healing. He showed up everywhere, with a bone-crushing handshake and a big smile.
Beyond that, though, Maxson was determined to build a bigger, better school. That meant fund-raising and he was a master at it. Private dollars poured into UNLV at previously unseen rates, and they came from prominent Nevadans ranging from the Thomas and Mack families to Verna Harrah. UNLV named its internationally respected hospitality college for her husband Bill.
As Eugene Moehring wrote in his history of UNLV, “The president understood the symbiotic relationship between fund-raising and creating a quality university, and he pursued both.” Maxson saw that UNLV had fewer degree programs than most schools of comparable size. Under his leadership, the number of degree programs mushroomed, including doctoral programs, along with a school of architecture and the Hank Greenspun School of Communication, as it was then called. New buildings sprouted on campus, including in physics and health sciences. Old buildings were fixed up. Maxson also pushed to create more campus housing. UNLV remained largely a commuter campus, but more students now resided there. He didn’t get everything he wanted—the law school would come later. But during his 11 years as president, a LOT happened.
To be fair, there also was a lot of controversy. It mostly involved athletics. The biggest battle involved the legendary basketball head coach, Jerry Tarkanian. The NCAA had been after him for years over recruiting violations, which there were. Tarkanian accused the NCAA of being out to get him for being honest about its more questionable activities, and it was. But the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld the NCAA’s requirement that Tarkanian leave the UNLV program for two years. Maxson negotiated a deal to delay the penalty, but several incidents came in between. They ranged from the university secretly taping a basketball practice to links between the basketball players and Richie “the Fixer” Perry. Maxson pressured Tarkanian into resigning. Tarkanian and his allies pressured Maxson, too. He finally left UNLV in 1994. He ended up spending more than a decade as the popular president of Cal State Long Beach … the school from which UNLV had hired Tarkanian. After that, Maxson headed the private Sierra Nevada College.
The fight with Tarkanian was a sad spectacle. But it shouldn’t minimize the fact that, thanks to Robert Maxson, UNLV became a much better university. The enthusiasm he brought to his work, and the enthusiasm he engendered, still are affecting UNLV and the world beyond it.
