NHMCCD Board makes the right choice

Last night, on a vote of 6-3, the NHMCCD board voted to select Dr. Richard Carpenter as the next Chancellor to replace John Pickelman. It is my understanding that the back room discussions that took place prior to the board convening in open session late last night were extremely contentious, bordering on "knock down, drag out". Red Ink: Texas applauds this decision, but the job is not finished yet. Dr. Carpenter is an extremely competent leader and as such he was recently given very high marks by his current institution, along with a sizable raise. As a result, the incentive for Dr. Carpenter to come to Houston is no longer there. The salary he was initially offered is $40,000 less than his current pay in Las Vegas. Now given the respective cost of living in the two cities, $40,000 might not go as far in Vegas as it would in Houston, so the actual value of the difference may be something to consider. So far, no negotiations have taken place, and in fact as of last night at around 10:30 PM Houston time, nobody from NHMCCD had contacted Dr. Carpenter to even inform him that he had been selected. The difference is around 5-7% of the total compensation package so there is clearly room for negotiation. Let us hope that NHMCCD bargains in good faith and is not doing this for appearance sake so that when Dr. Carpenter rejects a lowball offer they can say they tried and then go about selecting either Steve Head or Diane Troyer as likely originally planned.