Candles are shown at the home of Naoko Takemaru during a vigil Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Takemaru, a Japanese studies professor, was killed along with two other professors Wednesday by a gunman at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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My love affair with UNLV started because of Gerald Paddio, who hit a 3-pointer that propelled the Runnin’ Rebels to a last-second victory over Temple at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
It continued later that 1986-87 season with Freddie Banks and Armen Gilliam leading the Rebels to the Final Four against Indiana. We all wanted to shoot the ball like Freddie and dominate the inside like “The Hammer” Gilliam.
The love strengthened in the mid-1990s as a student, when being part of the UNLV community helped shape the ideals many of us Rebels still live by. We learned to be part of the solution, welcoming to all, and were given the tools to do our part in making the world a better place.
We live by a simple standard: If you are a Rebel, you are family.
Our family, unfortunately, is hurting.
A shooter police described as a failed job candidate in the Lee School of Business took the cowardly action last week of killing three professors on campus and seriously injuring a fourth before being killed by police. The active shooter call late Wednesday morning brought great fear to students and staff, some of whom were locked in shelter for hours with their minds wandering.
Thankfully, no students were physically injured or killed. But many suffered mental wounds that won’t soon be healed, prompting university officials to make the easy decision to cancel this week’s final exams.
Nobody wants to be back at the scene of terror, where they would surely relive those somber minutes and hours of uncertainty wondering if they would survive.
“I won’t sugarcoat it. We are all hurting right now,” UNLV President Keith Whitfield said last week. “But it’s in these trying times that we need to lean on one another for support.”
Today marks one week since the shooting, and Whitfield is right, the support of fellow Rebels and those who love the UNLV community has been overwhelming.
There have been vigils, monetary donations, people opening their business to students, prayers, moments of silence and more. My local big box chain Thursday had empty racks of UNLV gear, when usually those items sit untouched for weeks.
The professors lost — Jerry Cha-Jan Chang, Patricia Navarro Velez, Naoko Takemaru — were great educators who had long been part of the UNLV community. And what made them great wasn’t how well they performed their jobs.
Stories have emerged detailing how they were even better members of the community and took pride in looking out for others, especially those young adults they teach. Remember, college students are usually age 18-22, and living away from home for the first time.
Take Takemaru, who taught Japanese in the College of Liberal Arts. She almost exclusively spoke to her students in Japanese, but when former student Steven Gonabe had a family issue, she gently switched to English and told him “my door is always open. You can always talk to me,” he told the Sun’s Hillary Davis.
“She really pushed the students,” Gonabe said. “If you had a passion for it, she would guide you.”
Chang, who studied the impact of information technology, human-computer interaction, organizational learning and software piracy, loved the university so much that he donated his body to it for research, officials said.
Navarro Velez, 39, worked for one of the world’s largest public accounting firms before joining UNLV in 2019 as an accounting professor. She had four children. And she treated all in the Rebel community as if they were family, colleagues say.
“Her lasting legacy is one of a wide circle of friends who through her influence and love, and through this experience, today, find themselves as family,” said Jason Smith, chair of the accounting department.
The family feel that Navarro Velez brought to UNLV is something many of us have long felt when at home on the Maryland Parkway campus.
A shooter who tried to destroy our community because he couldn’t be part of it has done the complete opposite. He’s made us stronger. He’s intensified our love for each other and brought it to the forefront.
UNLV has and always will be a destination university. It’s in one of the world’s premier cities, has noted research and programs, and gives many first-generation students a place to obtain the tools to achieve their dreams.
The tragedy will go down as one of the worst days in UNLV history. But it’s also a turning point in making our community stronger. UNLV is already getting back up, and ready to continue with its mission of creating the next generation of leaders.
