Performance in question 
June 15, 2009 by Tessie Perkins
President David B. Ashley has been quietly serving UNLV for the past three years, but his presidency may end in a loud furor over his supposed passivity and ineffectual relations with staff.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that some campus community members see the president as lax with his management position and too disengaged with campus life. Allegations have also arisen that the president’s wife, Bonnie, has overstepped her bounds by being rude to the university’s staff members.
This comes just months after President Ashley was described in the May meeting of UNLV’s Periodic Presidential Evaluation Committee as a “quiet, brilliant” leader.
“Many and most of the people that I talked with want him to succeed and recognize that he’s really just begun his work here at the institution,” said the president’s evaluator, John Welty, at the time of the meeting.
Pressure is mounting for Ashley to resign, but his contract will not be discussed until the Board of Regents’ August meeting.
Sources told the Review-Journal that the Board of Regents is unlikely to renew Ashley’s contract, which will expire in 2010.
Chancellor Jim Rogers made it clear that comments regarding the Ashleys’ behavior would affect the decision on whether or not to renew the president’s contract.
Rogers told the Las Vegas Sun that “he warned Ashley that he had no support among the regents and that his contract was not likely to be renewed.” Rogers encouraged Ashley to stay in town and deal with the situation.
Rogers added that Ashley did not take his advice and instead traveled with his wife to attend the first commencement ceremony for the Singapore campus of UNLV’s William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.
The trip has been added to the list of grievances against the president, who was not available for comment.
Bonnie Ashley sent an e-mail to the Board of Regents apologizing for behavior that some referred to as rude and abrasive, including her reprimanding of several people hired to staff university parties at her residence.
She claimed the staffers purchased too much food and did not consult her on other decisions.
“Even when confronted in ways I felt were disrespectful to me as a human being, I should not have reacted so harshly and am very sorry for not being more even- tempered in my response,” she wrote.
She went on to say that she did not want her statement to be “misconstrued as an apology for being a strong-minded woman.”
Student Body President Adam Cronis said he hopes the matter is resolved speedily and fairly.
“My experience with President Ashley and his wife, Bonnie, has always been very positive,” he said.
Cronis also addressed the rumors about Ashley’s interaction with students and time on campus.
“The main concern among students is the issue of visibility and that’s something that President Ashley has acknowledged,” he said.
Regent Ron Knecht spoke during the May meeting of Ashley’s lack of visibility in the public eye.
“I’d certainly like to see [President Ashley] become the visionary-in-chief to both the internal and external constituencies,” he said.
Ashley‘s presidential contract would allow him to remain a UNLV faculty member in the engineering department should he leave his position.
David Ashley can serve UNLV by resigning.
I really don’t think his wife’s actions should reflect on him.
I also never heard a bad thing about Ashley until recently. I’m guessing this is a ploy to oust him in favor of finding someone who will do the job for less. I’ve never met a person, especially in the position of authority, that doesn’t have copious amounts of detractors, when one looks for reasons, they are always available. But, I don’t know of anything severe that he has done or not done that warrants dismissal. Don’t renew his contract? Ok. But let’s not continue to do what UNLV usually does and find someone for less that won’t challenge the university to become better.
Sounds like a bunch of elitists at each others throats. I’m sure theres many places to cut a lot of pork out and get someone better in charge…not some goofball thats never had a REAL job in his life, with a windbag bossy wife running around whining at spineless faculty.
As a recent college graduate, I was disappointed with President Ashley at the commencement ceremony last May. At the beginning of the ceremony, it was announced that because of the recent swine flu pandemic, the graduates were to refrain from shaking hands with any of the dignitaries on stage. This was well met with disappointed “boo”s from the graduating students. Our disappointment came from the fact that we had worked so hard to get to where we were that day and there would be no one on that stage to shake our hands. I heard from other graduating seniors across the nation that their universities took precautions such as having the students apply hand sanitizer before going on stage. The fact that President Ashley would refuse us the honor of shaking his hand or the hand of our dean was disrespectful. So, I wholeheartedly agree with the article stating that Ashley is “disengaged” from the students, because he can’t even give his newest alumni the respect we deserve for the feat we accomplished.