In first election since being appointed, higher ed regent draws challenge from math professor 

Patrick Villa, a mathematics professor at the College of Southern Nevada, will face higher education Regent Jennifer McGrath, the incumbent who was appointed to the seat in 2025, during the upcoming general election. 

No candidate running for Nevada System of Higher Education District 2 won more than 50% of the vote in the June primary election resulting in the top two facing off again in November. 

McGrath came close, garnering roughly 49% of the vote while Villa, one of three candidates who challenged her, received about 25% of the vote.

The Southern Nevada district covers areas of the central Las Vegas Valley as far south as Spring Valley and as far north as Centennial Hills. 

Villa has been a math professor at CSN for 22 years, was chair of the Department of Mathematics for six years, and previously served as the CSN Faculty Senate Chair in 2024.

It’s his perspective working in higher education, he said, that he thinks the board could use. 

“I feel I know what’s best for students, for faculty, and for staff,” he said, adding he knows firsthand  “what makes a quality education and what changes we can make.”

“Being here on the ground and being a Nevadan for this many years is what I feel I can offer versus my opponent or some other board members,” he said. 

McGrath didn’t respond to requests to be interviewed. She also didn’t respond to requests for comment ahead of the primary election.

NSHE regents had previously served six year terms but 2023 legislation decreased it to four years. The legislation also mandates whoever wins the election will serve a two-year term before the seat reverts to a four-year cycle.

Villa had previously considered running to become a regent but didn’t want to challenge former regent Lois Tarkanian, who was elected to the seat in 2020.

After Tarkanian died in 2024, McGrath, an attorney, was appointed to fill the seat in 2025 by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo. 

As an attorney McGrath represented more than 300 women who claimed they were sexually abused by University of California, Los Angeles gynecologist Dr. James Heaps. UCLA settled and agreed to pay the victims $375 million in 2022.

Serving as a senate faculty chair, Villa has had the opportunity to present to the board on various occasions. At times, he said he grew frustrated watching the board misunderstand aspects of higher education or even sometimes the votes they were taking. 

Though the board already has a current professor, Jeffery Downs, serving as a regent, Villa thinks his perspective as a faculty member is often dismissed by others on the board.

There have been times, Villa added, when the board has not only dismissed the views and concerns of other faculty members, but disregarded the opinions of students who testify during public comment. 

“I just think we owe it to them to hear them out,” he said. “We’ve all seen it where somebody gets cut off, or someone’s told to hurry up, or they cut public comment, or they just say, ‘okay, we’re done talking about this.”

The election comes months after the regents approved a measure to increase tuition over the next three years by 12% for universities and upper-division courses at community colleges.

McGrath voted for the increase. 

Villa thought the proposal was premature. 

“At some point we may have no choice, but at this point, I felt like that was really rushed, and they didn’t properly consider alternatives,” he said of the proposal to hike tuition. 

Part of the problem is that higher education isn’t funded to the degree it should be by the state, he said

“The NSHE budget may have increased every biennium, but (as a) percent of the state budget has drastically gone down every year, so it doesn’t rise with other projects,” Villa said. 

In the meantime, NSHE could do more to deal with revenue gaps by tackling budget redundancies and audit wasteful spending, he said. 

“I want to show (the state) we are not wasting and that we’re efficient with the money,” he said, adding maybe that would lead lawmakers to “consider funding us more because you see we’re doing better with the money that you’re giving us.”