UNLV president touts school’s $74.9 million in private donations

By Ian Whitaker

Published Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 | 4:03 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 | 9 p.m.

In his first high-profile speech at UNLV since he took over as president in January, Len Jessup said today the university has raised $74.9 million from private donors this year.

It’s the most raised in the past five years and the second-best fundraising year in UNLV history.

“Congratulations to you, because fundraising is a team sport,” Jessup said to applause during his State of the University address. “We all did that together.”

In his speech — the text was delivered to Jessup on stage by “Metal Rebel,” a robot built by UNLV engineering students — UNLV’s 10th president touched on a number of pressing issues, including the long-term effort to become a top-tier research university.

Here are the highlights:

Growth

It's hard to talk about UNLV without talking about its extraordinary growth, and Jessup made it a major theme of his speech.

He talked about the university's consistently record-breaking enrollment numbers — a 15 percent increase in nonresident students this year and a 40 percent spike in enrollment since 2011. Also big: The largest freshman class in history and jam-packed residence halls.

"This is a very exciting time to be at UNLV," he said. "You can feel that growth."

He reiterated what has been his motto during his time at UNLV so far: "This university at this place at this time."

Looming on the horizon is a potential purchase of 42 acres of land just west of the campus, which could be used as a site for a long-awaited stadium.

"We need to find a way to do it. We need the land,” Jessup said. "We've outgrown this campus.”

The university just recently purchased an apartment complex north of campus, which is expected to provide around 700 beds for students by 2017.

"At a time when this las vegas valley needs UNLV to be a top tier university more than ever."

"You can feel that growth." This is the perfect time for this university to be working toward top-tier status."

Top tier status

A lot has been written about UNLV’s desire to become a Tier 1 research university in the eyes of the Carnegie Foundation, but Jessup outlined another vision.

It’s not enough to become internationally recognized for research, he argued, UNLV has to become a “first choice” school to become successful.

Jessup said he is currently overseeing a campus-wide effort to raise standards for nearly every department in the university, from addressing UNLV’s historically poor graduation rates to making sure arts programs are not left behind in a rush to push more science and engineering research.

"We have to get good at the things we do for students," Jessup said. “Research and teaching need to go hand and hand."

He said achieving a top research designation by Carnegie would still be a major goal, but that “it's not enough."

A number of university committees are currently working to address campus issues like community partnerships, infrastructure, scholarships and student achievement.

Jessup said he believes UNLV can reach the goal in around 10 years, but added “there’s lots of work left to be done.”

Achievements

Choosing from a long list, Jessup outlined a number of achievements the university has made recently, including a tripling of patents filed as a result of university research as well as the growing prestige of several university departments.

The UNLV business school continues to rise in the U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings — this year up to 156th from 184th. The Boyd School of Law also climbed 15 spots in a recent ranking this year, up to 67 out of 198 accredited law schools tracked by U.S. News.

"We wanted to continue to make sure this was the best possible law school for the state of Nevada,” he said. “And the proof is in the pudding."

The university’s Honors College also saw the largest incoming class ever at around 270 students.

UNLV itself enjoyed several boosts to its public image recently, including being named the second most diverse campus in the nation by U.S. News and becoming the second college in the state to achieve the designation of Hispanic Serving Institution for its large population of Hispanic and Latino students.

The university recently hired an outside consultant to provide even more guidance on diversity, Jessup said.

"We're spending a lot of time and effort on making sure that the diversity and inclusiveness of this campus continue,” he said.

Medical school

Jessup received heavy applause after detailing the giant success of UNLV’s fledgling School of Medicine, which just recently breezed through a multimillion-dollar scholarship campaign in just a few weeks.

He praised the work of interim dean Dr. Barbara Atkinson, who spearheaded the fundraising campaign and now has to hunker down for an even harder one: raising around $100 million to finance the school’s first building near the University Medical Center.

The school also needs to hire faculty, nail down curriculum and the most important step: Gain accreditation. It’s expected to open its door to an inaugural class of 60 students in fall of 2017.

Presidential aspirations?

Jessup revealed that the university had applied to host one of the presidential debates in 2016.

UNLV is in the running with a number of well-known universities, he said, but Nevada’s status as a swing state would be a major selling point.

“There’s a lot of reasons why we think if we can get a debate, if it will be even bigger than they usually are,” he said.

An announcement about that is expected to come in a few weeks.

Athletics

Jessup kicked off his remarks on UNLV athletics by praising football coach Tony Sanchez, who suffered his first home defeat on Saturday after the Rebels were beaten by UCLA 37-3.

"Tony has come in and really has been an injection of energy and discipline and spirit into our football program,” Jessup said. "Our team fought right until the end of that game.”

Jessup called student athletics a “window” through which many see into the campus, and said it is integral to UNLV’s brand. There are currently around 450 student-athletes at the university.

He winced jokingly at the thought of Rebels playing powerhouse Michigan this weekend, but said UNLV was setting its sights on the Mountain West Conference.

"We are looking up at UNLV,” he said. “We've got big aspirations here quite frankly."