UNLV Photo Services
This file photo shows a view of the UNLV campus.
Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020 | 2 a.m.
When it came time for UNLV to submit a 119-page application for a prestigious community engagement award, many stakeholders in the Las Vegas Valley combined to take part in the process. After all, the university has long taken pride in its outreach and has developed many loyal community partners over the years.
More than 70 faculty members, 45 campus units and 15 community partners joined in the application to help the university achieve a special distinction earned by just 119 other higher education institutions this year.
Both UNLV and UNR last week earned the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement, a classification that demonstrates the university’s commitment to strengthening bonds between the campus and surrounding community. Schools are evaluated on collaboration with the community with scholarships, research and public service.
The accreditation was years in the making, said Sue DiBella, the school’s interim executive director of community engagement. It took a great deal of self-study and documentation through the program’s 100-plus-page application process, she said.
“This distinction is validation to commitment to our community,” she added.
UNR and UNLV join several other universities nationwide, such as Indiana University, Rutgers University and University of New Mexico, in earning the 2020 accreditation.
“This recognition highlights our universities’ commitment to creating and building upon reciprocal connections with partners locally, nationally and internationally,” said Thom Reilly, chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, in a statement. “Making connections with our communities is a priority for the state’s higher education institutions so that we can better meet the needs of Nevada. I’m proud of our students, faculty and administrators, whose work is reflected in this prestigious honor.”
The classification is valid until 2026, at which time both universities will need to renew their applications to keep the status. The accreditation is rigorous and does not leave room for stagnation as the application will ask schools to provide evidence on how they’ve kept the community engaged on a deeper, more extensive level. There are 359 schools that are active holders of this accreditation.
This announcement comes right after both institutions earned R1 “very high research activity” status, another distinction awarded by the Carnegie Foundation in December 2018. R1 is considered the gold standard for university research classifications.
Carnegie’s latest classification meant voluntary participation by both universities. UNLV is engaged yearly in more than 1,000 community partnership projects, officials said.
When Legal Aid of Southern Nevada Executive Director Barbara Buckley took the helm of the nonprofit in 1989, she longed for a law school to open in Las Vegas to help meet the unmet legal needs in the community. At the time it was just made up of a few volunteers offering free consultations and other services for those in the community who couldn’t afford to pursue a civil case. Still, there were just not enough people in the program to fill the much-needed gaps in the community. So when the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV opened its doors in 1997, she immediately met with the dean to propose a partnership with the school.
Now, Legal Aid in conjunction with UNLV’s law school has served more than 70,000 members of the community through a wide range of services including legal classes, consultations and even some pro bono litigation services.
“The law school and its students are so involved in the community,” she said. “We have benefited from having this commitment whether through direct services or the now one-third of attorneys who serve here who came from the school.”
UNLV has also been the research backbone of ReInvent Schools Las Vegas, a community schools initiative between the city of Las Vegas and Clark County School District to provide wraparound support to schools that need it most.
“UNLV has been an integral part of ReInvent schools since the beginning,” said Michael Maxwell, the city’s director of the Youth Development and Social Innovation department. “UNLV has provided background and research to the things that work for these underperforming schools.”
At UNR, faculty and students have logged more than 45,000 verified hours of community outreach during the 2017-18 academic year. The application highlighted partnerships in health care in some of Reno’s most marginalized regions.
“It took an extraordinary level of commitment by the people of our institution to reach this milestone,” UNR President Marc Johnson in a statement.
