UNLV struggles to find its niche

Sunday, March 19, 2000 | 9:31 a.m.

Can UNLV really become another UCLA?

Carol Harter, president of the Las Vegas university, thinks so. Her comments about UNLV's future are sprinkled with references to the famous California school.

"It's a high aspiration. But if you don't aspire to that, you can be sure you won't get there," Harter said. "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."

But the road to becoming Nevada's UCLA is a dead end, said Bill Thompson, a professor in the university's public administration college.

There are many pointed opinions and few pat answers in the ongoing debate over UNLV's role in Las Vegas and the state.

Should it focus on serving Nevada's thriving resort industry? Should it churn out enough teachers to keep up with the Las Vegas Valley's astronomical growth? Does it have any business aspiring to become an upper-tier institution that emphasizes research?

What kind of niche can UNLV administrators realistically hope to fill?

Thompson says the university should focus on what's important to Nevada residents and capitalize on what Las Vegas already has, rather than mold itself in the image of another place.

"We're a community university with graduate programs that fit our students' needs. We're not going to attract students from all over the country except in specialty fields," he said.

With its service-based economy, Southern Nevada has more social problems per capita than many other regions, Thompson said. UNLV could boost its sociology and human services education programs and do research on issues such as gambling addiction, child abuse, teen suicide and teen pregnancy.

And Nevada has set the standard for tourism and hotel management in many ways, he said. It would be a fine place to open an institute on tourism research. It's not cancer research, but it's worthy.

"Why do we have to be ashamed of it?" Thompson said. "Why do we have to look anywhere? We are a global city. The world looks at us. Why does our university have to model itself after Cal or Arizona or anywhere else?" UNLV stepped up to the plate when Harter pushed to graduate more teachers in response to the state's shortage of good ones. But her current desire to cap that number and allow an as-yet unfunded state college in Henderson to fill the void later is a failure to follow through.

"That's our biggest education need in our state, and she's going to stop," Thompson said.

UNLV needs to push beyond Las Vegas and offer programs that benefit the rest of the communities in the state.

"We should decide whether we are going to join the state of Nevada," he said. "We should act like we care about Elko. You get about 50 miles outside of Las Vegas, and those kids go to Reno (for college)."

John Gallagher, UNLV Foundation executive director and self-described Harter proponent, says there is nothing wrong with a lofty goal.

"Whether UCLA is your model or Arizona or Washington, you've got to have a target. If you don't, anything becomes OK," he said.

Less than half of UNLV's money comes from the Nevada Legislature, and private donations cannot take up the slack, Gallagher said. The university needs research grants to bring programs that will help students and the university move forward.

"It is absolutely the right thing to do," he said. "The challenge with that is we don't want to become less of a teaching institution for our students. We need to stay committed to the undergraduate as well."

Rachel Land, a UNLV student and editor of the Rebel Yell student newspaper, says administrators need to think less about ivy-covered walls of academia and more about serving a student population that is made up of scholars who are also full-time workers.

No amount of planning by Harter or any other UNLV president is going to turn Las Vegas into Berkeley.

"I think it's a mistake to model UNLV after another campus. It's a flawed idea," Land said. "We are a commuter campus. That's one of the problems here.

"We have students working 40 to 50 hours a week and carrying a full class load. (Going to class) is like going to work."

Land is among those students who say the administration is failing to deliver on its promise of creating a "student-centered" university.

For example, Land said, administrators have been slow to add more student parking. It shows they are out of touch with students' basic needs. Those who have night classes or return to their cars after dark often do so alone and walk long distances in not-so-savory neighborhoods.

"Parking is something that has been ignored," Land said. "That's not very 'student-centered.' "

Claudia Collins, an associate professor with UNR extension services in Las Vegas, has taught at UCLA and UNLV.

UNLV has good connections with the business community, and the administration should capitalize on it, Collins said. They can cultivate more of the partnerships that bring in guest professors and student internships.

"One of the things I find most impressive about UNLV is the town-grown connection," Collins said. "They pull in experts from the community to talk to students. And they bring in some of the best minds in the business."

Internships not only help students attain skills, but they help make business relationships that can help the students get jobs and recommendation letters later.

"That's practical. It really gives these students a leg up," Collins said.

UNLV can't adequately serve its graduate students if it concentrates solely on being a community player, Collins said. Administrators need to get serious about attracting grants for national and international research projects in the sciences and technology.

Although the types of professors who run those studies are expensive and rarely spend time in the classroom, their projects are ones that give graduate students the challenge and work experience they need.

"You are serving the student base in a different way. It buys computers. It funds graduate programs," Collins said. "Research brings in money and faculty to support students to work in an area where they can get some expertise. A doctoral program has to be able to support students that way."

Bill Robinson, a UNLV economics professor and outspoken critic of Harter's administration, says the university's top officials have "pretty good goals."

"But they don't know how to get there," he added. "They don't know how to get from A to B."

Gallagher disagreed.

"UNLV is benefiting from a president who is aggressive, who has a vision and who knows how to get there," Gallagher said.

Harter says the school has for too long been viewed as "a major basketball team with a university attached."

She doesn't want to make UNLV a carbon copy of UCLA. But there is no reason it cannot become as respected and prestigious.

"In 15 to 20 years, we could have something of a similar reputation," Harter said. "I think we're well on our way."

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