Dr. Keith Whitfield; President; University of Nevada, Las Vegas

We understand that you have 31,000 students. Could you give us a brief introduction to UNLV?

UNLV is Nevada’s largest research university, and it’s so interesting because it’s located in one of the world’s most innovative and dynamic communities, which is the city of Las Vegas. We’ve got more than 31,000 students. We actually had the largest spring class on record and a record-breaking class of freshmen. As such, UNLV is on the rise.

We also hold the nation’s highest recognition for research and community service, the Carnegie Designations. When you think about our student population, about 70 percent of UNLV grads come from diverse backgrounds, including 33 percent who are Hispanic. That’s our largest single ethnic group. Given that a third of our students are the first ones in their family to attend and graduate (from college). It’s not just changing lives. We’re changing the entire families.

What would you say have been the keys to the success of the university in recent years?

It’s partly our mission. Our mission is to be a world-class research university that provides opportunities for students while also being very committed to connecting with our community and state.

Could you tell us a little bit more about the key programs and offerings that you would like to highlight at this time?

There are a number of great ones. We’ve long held the distinction of having the No. 1 hospitality program in the country. We also have Nevada’s only law school, and it ranks very high, particularly in legal writing. We are also the only dental school in the state with a number of very well-ranked programs in that particular field.

We also recently created a new degree program in cybersecurity. One of the things I think makes it an excellent program is that it gives students hands-on training. It’s not just book learning. Part of their cybersecurity work is done in a clinic for small businesses in the area, and that one is such a very cool program. It’s even been recognized by the White House as the way we need to change and train cybersecurity specialists.

Another department that we have that’s worth bragging about and that’s near and dear to my heart is our Department of Brain and Health Sciences. It operates one of the world’s only clinical trials observatory for Alzheimer’s disease. That group or that particular department also works with the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center to look at the impact of traumatic brain injuries on athletes, which is another very interesting topic.

One last thing I’d bring up is the work that we’re doing out in our Research Park. It sits on 120 acres in the southwest part of our city, and it’s where student innovators can work with Fortune 500 companies on projects that will, hopefully, be the next big thing. Part of how we ultimately cultivate and help those students is through something we call the President’s Innovation Challenge, where interdisciplinary groups get together to try to advance or address big issues. Last year, it was AI and education. It’s just amazing what our students end up putting forth as projects. 

The very last thing is that, as you may see, Las Vegas is becoming a sports town. We’ve created a Sports Innovation Institute so that we can work with professionals in the field and some of the ins and outs of professional sports. 

Looking at research education, we have a master’s in sports management and also some other things. For example, we’re having the Sports Entertainment Innovation Convention this July. That’s going to bring people from basically every sector of sports into a conference that we’re going to hold here this summer. We just had the Super Bowl. About 60 students did internships with them. It was a really nice way of mixing real-world practical things with the education that we offer here at UNLV.

That’s something. I would like to ask you about the campus and the facilities. Please tell us more about those for students considering the university.

We are considered, I don’t like the word very much, a commuter campus because what we try to do is to engage students and make sure that they feel belonging when they’re on campus. We have about 1,800 beds here on campus. Still, it’s the area around us that we’re thinking about finding ways in which we can actually, if we don’t own them, at least programmatically help some of these facilities so that they’re a little more student-focused. This is to make sure that students get the proper knowledge and experience living off campus versus on campus, making sure that they get that experience as well.

Could you tell us a little bit more about the role of innovation? You mentioned that the university is really very strong in research. Could you tell us or highlight some of the key elements that you have researched recently?

I mentioned a couple. Cybersecurity is one of them. We are very interesting because we’re one of only two universities in the nation that has multiple scientists working on the NASA project to Mars. Actually, we have two women working. As such, it’s a women and STEM kind of piece that we have. That, I think, is fantastic.

In addition to that, we have a couple of different centers that do different sorts of work around entrepreneurship. Las Vegas is just a very entrepreneurial town. It’s amazing entrepreneurship that has come and built a town in the middle of the desert. Our students are very aligned with that. We get a chance through our business school to offer opportunities for students to solve real-world problems around big issues in business.

Another example of our connection to the community is the work that our school of education is doing. Our College of Education has created a couple of programs that are one-of-a-kind, at least for our state, in helping people who were working in a school system but didn’t have a degree and couldn’t be teachers. We’re creating a pathway for them to get their degree and teach. That addresses one of the biggest issues we have, which is the shortage of teachers in the state. That’s a very important part as well. 

Lastly, the only other group I can think of is nursing. We’ve received some wonderful support from our state legislature on building our capacity to have more nurses. It’s one of the pieces of health care that we experience a shortage of here, and so we’re trying to figure out ways to produce more of them. Part of it is that we need more professors to be able to teach more students. 

That’s one of the things that we’ve been doing, as well as holding summer programs for high school students to find out what it is really like to be a nurse, get some real practical knowledge of what it would be like and get excited about it. Once they enter college, they’re really angled toward and focused on getting a degree in nursing.

What do you think makes the university special? What is the competitive experience? Why will students join you?

There are different ways to answer that question. I think, in part, it is our student population that comes here. This is really seen as an opportunity to grow and help their families. One of the things that we have that’s a point of bragging is that we’re in the top 10 percent in schools that take folks from the lowest two bands of social mobility up to the highest.

A lot of that is built on economics, where people start from, but they really do get the opportunity to benefit from having a higher education and then compete for better jobs. So that’s one of the things.

We just have students with a lot of grit. We hear some of the stories of what they go through to get their degrees. It is absolutely inspiring. We have students who live in their cars, and they’re still getting through and getting their degrees, or they’re working a full-time job, and they’re taking care of an ill parent or a child, and they’re still getting their degrees. It’s just a certain kind of grit. That’s what we used to call in the Midwest hardworking focus and we see UNLV as a great opportunity for them.

Fantastic. You also mentioned the impact on the community. Obviously, you are a very sizable university. Please tell us more about recent initiatives that you have undertaken in the community.

One of them is through our medical school. We have a brand new medical school. We just graduated only our fourth class. One of the things that the medical school does is provide lots of practical experience for our students, and one of the ways in which we do that is by working with the school system here. 

We have one place that is supported by a very generous donor. It is in an area that has some health deprivation—it almost doesn’t have any health care. We actually have a clinic in that setting, and we have a clinic in another setting with the school system. That’s the health piece of it.

Past that, we hold as many things on campus as possible and sponsor as many events as possible so that folks have a platform for some of the exciting things that they do. No matter what the community is, no matter what the community event is, we try to partner with it. That goes for the Boys and Girls Club. I’m a big fan of Junior Achievement, and we’re connected to it. 

We just started a financial literacy center on campus: the Financial Literacy Institute. Students are learning things that will continue as they’re in college, such as being financially literate and having financial well-being. That’s another piece that you know is very interestingly connected to the community.

I would like to ask you one of my final questions: What will be the key message that you would like to send across?

That would be a couple of things. One, college is expensive no matter where you go. However, for what you get, we’re an incredible deal relative to the cost of tuition. 

What makes it really magical is what you can actually learn and do here. We have an incredible faculty that really cares about our students and really wants to work with them, maximize them and mentor them. That’s what we’re known for. That’s the piece that we’ve been doing really well on top of being a leading research university. 

It kind of gives the best of both worlds. It’s in a city that’s very exciting, and at the same time, this is its own place that mixes some of that excitement with education, research and experiences. It’s a wonderful combination of all of those things. And I think that’s one of the things that makes UNLV a very special place.

What is your vision for the university in the next three to five years?

We want to grow as a university. We want to be open to growth even though this is a time when you know there might be a demographic cliff and all these other kinds of things. We can grow because we are a very, very special place, unique and offer a lot of opportunities at a very good price.

That and being innovative. That’s more than anything else. We’re trying to figure out ways to use virtual reality and some of the classes and labs that we have, making sure that we have entrepreneurs and residents who can come and bring real-world living and thinking experiences to the students so that they can see what life is going to be like.

The other piece is that we’re one of the top, most diverse schools in the country. One of the other things that I want us to continue to do is teach about what diversity means and understand differences. If somebody grew up in West Las Vegas, they’re different from somebody in East Las Vegas, and sharing those experiences helps you better navigate the global world. 

Understanding differences is something that I hope we can figure out more ways to give our students more experiences so they can experience and understand what that really means. It’ll benefit them as life skills as they grow up.