UNLV president ready for a ‘more normal’ academic year

UNLV President Keith Whitfield is preparing for what he hopes will be the first “normal” school year since the outset of the pandemic in early 2020.

The university will still offer some online class options for those who need the flexibility, but much of the student population will be returning to campus Monday for the start of the fall semester.

The Sun sat down with Whitfield for an interview last week to talk about the upcoming semester, virus safety protocols, the budget, the future of UNLV athletics and more.

Here is some of what was discussed:

What about this new year is so exciting for you? Is there anything specific you’re looking forward to?

It’s funny because every year is new and exciting, and there’s always something different. I think that when we’re coming up on this one, it’s going to be more normal than ever before. We’re coming close to what we used to do in terms of in-person delivery. UNLV is a brick-and-mortar place —we’re not a place that you log on and are never ever actually on campus, but the new reality is that students need that flexibility and opportunity. So, we still have online classes, we still have some remote classes, but about 75% of our courses will be back in person.

With the return to campus, are there any safety procedures that the university will continue from the pandemic to mitigate the spread of viruses, like COVID-19?

Our biggest thing is that we want to give people choice. The university —at many times, in terms of the rate of COVID —was actually one of the safer places in the whole city. So we want to actually make sure that we do have a safe environment here, but what we liked is that we now have the ability to say: It’s your choice about what you do. It’s not us needing to mandate it because of policy or, you know, really trying to overdo making sure that we had a safe community. It’s that you get to do what you want, but we encourage it.

We just accept people for who they are, and if you want to wear a mask, you should wear a mask because no one knows what personal circumstances that you may be struggling with. You have an immunocompromised parent at home or child, there’s all kinds of reasons that someone might actually want to wear a mask to continue that protection. At the same time, there’s others who are like, “Well, I’ve been boosted, I feel safe.” We have the freedom to do both, but we always want people to respect other peoples’ choices.

With lingering COVID variants and monkeypox on the rise, is there anything that the university has introduced this semester to protect students’ health and physical wellness?

We follow public health guidelines; we follow state guidelines. I think one of the things we’re doing is making sure —in our Student Health Center —that they have the capacity to be able to go get vaccines and boosters (and) to be able to make sure that they can be as safe as possible. But right now, there’s kind of no formal policies that we have.

The one that’s on the horizon is monkeypox, and it’s not completely clear about how much impact that’ll have. I mean, right now they’re saying that it really gets spread in certain kinds of ways and one of the things that we have —and we are so lucky —is that we have Brian Labus as a public health person who is a state leader. He’s actually being nationally recognized for how he’s helping us, guiding us (in) how we’re thinking about things. And so we’ve put out a couple of things making sure people understand, like for example, with monkeypox there’s a big thing about making sure your surfaces are clean. It’s like any other virus, to me. Just make sure you need to wash your hands when you need to wash your hands.

That’s really the only other safety precaution. We’re just making sure that as a new, potential public health threat, that we’re making sure that we talk to our students and inform them about things they can do to make sure they feel safe.

What is something that you’re most proud of accomplishing within your tenure as UNLV president?

Surviving! I’m still standing … It’s amazing because you see how much has gone on at this university and it’s during COVID. For example, we have been able to make some strategic thinking and purchasing relative to real estate and what our physical campus is going to look like and that’s moving forward. We’re going to have some new signage so that you can actually kind of navigate the university better. We’ve purchased a place right across the street —Rebel Plaza.

I came here, and I really wanted to have this university district. Two of our (Clark County) commissioners —Commissioner (Tick) Segerblom and (James) Gibson —were really supportive of it, and I was like, fantastic! We shared that with the public and everybody came back to us and said, “Oh, yeah. Carol Harter thought of that 20 years ago.” So, it wasn’t anything new, but it was finally realized, and it looks like we’re finally going to realize it.

The other thing is working with the (Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada). We seem to have a really good working relationship with them, and so we’re going to help be able to impact their thinking about what Maryland Parkway looks like because, in some ways, that’s our front doorstep and we want to make sure we can work to have one that really looks good for the community but also looks good for the university. We also purchased the (Public Education Foundation) building (and so) we’re building that presence on the other side of Maryland Parkway and that’s part of the golden vision. There’s some other internal things that we’re going to do, physically that we’re looking to try to do.

For me, it’s that I have this incredibly talented leadership team, and so I can’t take credit for everything. But even the real estate piece. I think the economic development piece is really huge.

And the third area is really community connections. That’s one of the pieces that I think is really high on my list. We have been working with CCSD, for example, with the superintendent. Actually, we’ve got this fascinating —I think it’s relatively new —connection across the universities in this area. So we’re working with CCSD, we’re working with (Nevada State College), and we’re working with (the Desert Research Institute) at things that we do that we make sure that we tell them that we’re doing —it doesn’t just appear in a paper, we tell them that we’re doing it —but as well, thinking about ways that we can work together. Like around workforce development. That’s something that kind of starts in the schools, but there’s all kinds of ways you can think about workforce development. You can think about the things that happen at community college, but that’s not all workforce. There’s things that happen that NSC, for example, is very strong on. Then there’s things where the four-year research institution that we can actually contribute to workforce.

So that’s been another piece —that community connection building. I’m very proud of (it), as an urban research university. You know, the ones that are great in this country that’s kind of the flavor of what they do, and so I think that we’re doing that pretty well, there’s just more that we need.

There’s a lot of stuff going at UNLV right now as far as construction projects and physical growth of the campus. Do you have any updates or a timeline on these projects?

The one that we’re really, really, excited about is our Advanced Engineering Building. When you look at engineering, engineering in the past 10 years —I think —has really grown by 100 or 120%, and that matches how our community is changing. It’s matching how our world is changing. We need more engineers. That building is going to fit a really important need. I think (it will be completed) in fall 2024, which is somewhat early.

Throughout your career, what are some things that you would’ve done differently?

It’s so funny because I do share with my staff all the time that one of my perspectives is: You will not have problems with me if you try and you fail; you’ll only have problems with me if you don’t try.

I think there have been some times with hires. Hiring is just an art, it’s actually hard. I think sometimes people see the power difference going on, like, “you hired me, and you have all the power,” but it’s actually very hard when you’re the hiring person to see if you have the right person. If you’re really wanting to move things forward, it really becomes a high bar. And so, I’ve had one or two hires in the past that I wish I could take it back. It was that they were perfectly fine people, (but) they weren’t the right fit.

Did you have any perspectives on UNLV and Las Vegas that were challenged once you spent more time here?

My perception is that UNLV is a nationally-recognized name, and so I don’t have to worry about going to “Backwater U,” you know, you’re going to a strong research university. I perceived certain things about the university. Some of that has changed (but) most of it was a pretty good read, which is (that) we’re aspirational, we highlight and we value diversity, and —the even bigger piece is about the hunger piece, which I love. I like getting in there and swinging when you’re the underdog and you’re trying to come up, and I think sometimes we see that (at UNLV).

I think the perception of Las Vegas —I never had this perception, but I got it from a couple people and I thought it was so interesting. They’d say, “Oh, you’re at UNLV! That’s in Las Vegas,” and I’d say yes, and they’d say, “Isn’t that glitzy?” And I thought, you know, no! People live here, they don’t walk around in sequins in the grocery store. To me, even during the pandemic, (the people) were very warm. I didn’t realize it was going to be such a warm and welcoming community. You only see the iconic piece of it, but there’s a whole city around it and it’s warm and it’s great.

Could you please go into more depth about the programs you have established for K-12 students and how it helps you connect to the community?

There’s at least two different, good examples. One example is summer programs that are going on. I can’t remember what our number is, but me and my usual style —people were all bragging and said, “Oh, we have this many summer programs!” I said, yeah, let’s double them. (For high school students), the biggest thing is that even before they get (an internship), we’ve got to get them involved, interested, excited, and prepared for the challenges of going to a four-year institution and what it means for them to go out into the workforce.

One of the other pieces with the K-12 space that our (dean of education) came up with this idea that when you look and see in the Clark County school system, there’s a good number of people thattypically have an associate’s degree, but they don’t have a four-year degree, so they can’t be in the teaching realm. We’re like, we’ll train them up, we’ll figure out a way to get them that four-year degree and to work with them being working adults. It’s called the Paraprofessional Pathway Program. That helps, and I know we have over 100 people involved (with that program). For the summer programs —and one of the reasons why I’m a big fan for it —is that I do see that students become better prepared, I do see that teachers work hard on a regular school season, while the summer programs help keep that excitement, stretch them a little bit more in certain ways, so then they’re going to go back and be better students in the school system. So that’s the partnership of why those things are actually healthy and help in terms of being able to try and support the K-12.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought at least a 12% budget cut to the university, so has that had any sort of impact on these programs and others across the university or was federal aid able to cover any gaps?

(The budget cut) hurt greatly. It affects our ability to be able to teach, it affects our ability to be able to do research, and it definitely —it’s across the board, that 12% was not focused on any one group. And so our ability to be able to do some of those things is impacted. But one of the things that you find at UNLV is that we just try to make a dollar out of 15 cents.

So, you know, if you’re cut like that we’re not going to roll up the carpet and just say everything’s over. We’re like no, OK it’s going to be twice as hard now, what can we still do?

I think it was 12%, and it’s funny because it was cut before I got here. So it was something that I inherited, but we were already figuring out ways that we can try to (do) a bit of Band-Aiding until it comes back. We really desperately need our budgets returned to at least pre-pandemic levels and they still haven’t been. So that’s something that we’re going to be trying to ask the Legislature for, the governor for, is to see if there’s a way to be able to do that because we think the value added of having strong universities that are really running at 100% capacity, it’s good for everybody. It’s worth the investment that will be made.

Switching gears. USC and UCLA shocked the college sports world in July by announcing plans to leave the Pac-12 Conference for the Big 10. That leaves an opening in a lucrative Power 5 Conference that is regional to Las Vegas. Will UNLV be looking to take steps toward moving into a higher conference?

We’re in the Group of Five, but what’s interesting is the Mountain West Conference arguably is at the top of the Group of Five. So, that’s the reason why this is so complicated. We’re saying, for UNLV: Well, yes, people are talking about that. UNLV is a good school academically and athletically, and that we might be somebody that they would be interested in trying to return to that Pac-12. But others are saying, “The Pac-12 has been weakened and maybe with conference realignment, other people are going to leave.”

So, there’s all of this consternation and no one knows really what things really are and what’s really going to happen. You don’t really get to make a pitch, per say, to say “Oh, I want to meet with you because we want to be in the Pac-12.” But we get talked to about certain things, you know. We’ve not had any offers, so we’ve not made any decision.

I think more than anything else, I think we help to make the Mountain West Conference —our current conference —stronger. We also, as a university in and of ourselves, we want to compete with the best and I have significant hopes that this next year is going to be a solid year for all of our teams.