Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Jessup: Getting UNLV to Tier-1 requires more fundraising

Len Jessup

Geri Kodey / UNLV Photo Services

Len Jessup, dean of the University of Arizona Eller College of Management, was named UNLV’s next president on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014.

With an eye to reaching top-tier research status, UNLV will soon restart large-scale fundraising efforts.

That was the gist of new president Len Jessup’s first town hall meeting, held today on campus. The address drew a hefty crowd, with most of the room’s 600 seats filled by curious faculty, students and staff anxious to hear Jessup’s vision for the university going forward.

Jessup has only been on campus for two months, having been hired by the Board of Regents as the institution’s 10th president late last year. He said his time at the university so far has been a blur of getting up to speed.

He wasted no time getting into the nitty gritty. In light of limited state financial support, he said, UNLV will need to totally revamp its capital improvement plan.

The announcement is especially prescient in light of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s reduced budgetary commitment for the proposed UNLV medical school. Higher ed leaders initially asked for $27 million in state support for the school, but were surprised to see the governor earmarking only $8 million. The university is now focused on convincing lawmakers to bump that number back up. Jessup described current conversations in Carson City as “positive.”

UNLV finished its last fundraising effort five years ago at a final figure of around $540 million, said finance director Gerry Bomotti. The new plan is still in the development phase, according to Jessup, and might be announced sometime later this year.

He said the new plan would dovetail with the university’s long-stated goal of attaining the Carnegie Foundation’s ‘Tier One’ designation as a research-heavy institution.

Five workgroups consisting of around 200 UNLV staff are spending the spring semester developing a strategy to fulfill Carnegie’s handful of requirements to earn the designation.

The next step will come at the end of the semester, when officials will go to the campus community for help implementing that strategy.

Jessup said he’s run into misconceptions on campus about the initiative. Some students and faculty seem to think Tier One status only applies to the physical sciences, he said, when it applies to all research done at a school.

When it comes to finding a replacement for John Valery White, who recently stepped down as provost, Jessup said he would follow the traditional process.

No speech would be complete without shout-outs to some notable, recent accomplishments, and Jessup had many.

And that’s just scratching the surface. The university’s Boyd School of Law also jumped 16 spots to 68 in the U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings, with several of its programs in the top 12.

UNLV is also fast making a name for itself when it comes to unmanned aerial systems, commonly known as drones. Two former engineering students recently began production of a highly-advanced quadrotor drone they are marketing to major industry.

“If you like what we’re doing now just wait and watch what we do next,” Jessup said.

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