As UNLV plans, few students show

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007 | 7:52 a.m.

The day ended the same way it began, in a ballroom packed with ties and black jackets, business casual, polished leather heels and burnished flats.

Noticeably absent from a public gathering, organized Tuesday to discuss UNLV's long-range planning, were those campus denizens who generally wear jeans, T-shirts and flip - flops, and carry backpacks.

Although students sat on panels debating education-oriented topics, only a smattering trickled in and out of the eight-hour forum. As hundreds of faculty members dominated the proceedings held on the student union's second floor, young people played ping pong and gobbled up Panda Express downstairs.

The meeting kicked off a series of events scheduled over the coming months that will allow stakeholders to weigh in on UNLV's future - to define its identity and determine its priorities for the coming years.

The forum's sad student showing was nothing new. Persuading UNLV's 28,000 students to be more involved in nonclassroom activities is a vexing, years-old problem and one many campuses face.

Panelist Brittney Forrest, an African-American studies major, thinks student involvement in developing long-term goals is important. It's valuable, she said "because they are making plans for us."

For his part, Executive Vice President and Provost Neal Smatresk would like to see students speak up because they know best what learning modes they prefer and what skills they perceive as valuable.

"We're dealing with a multigeneration gap between most faculty members and students," he said.

It's not that administrators didn't want students to attend Tuesday's event. Fliers, e-mails and advertisements in the school newspaper touted it. At a student focus group held the previous day to discuss development around UNLV, Smatresk highlighted the upcoming forum.

Still , turnout was underwhelming.

Students cited a range of reasons for not attending. Some said they didn't care, that they'd rather leave planning to higher-ups.

Senior Claudia Melton didn't know about the forum. If she had, she might not have had time to attend.

Of long-range planning, she said: "It's something I'd be interested in , but like most things at UNLV, it's probably going to be left to someone else."

Like many of her peers, Melton said she thought administrators did a good job of trying to persuade students to attend school events.

But between babies and mortgages, car payments and outside gigs, she explained, UNLV's commuter population can't spare much time for campus activities.

Melton, who studies history and works part time as a circulation assistant for a local library, said she can't commit to long-term UNLV projects.

Of those who did attend, a dozen Lady Rebels basketball players who wanted to hear a teammate speak on a panel appeared to be the largest group of students at Tuesday's forum.

One of them, Brittany Halberg, a junior studying broadcast journalism, got caught up in the proceedings and took the microphone to ask faculty members what they were doing to share teaching methods and establish uniform practices in the classroom.

By the end, passive support had given way to potential activism as Halberg expressed her intention of taking part in future town hall planning meetings to serve as a "voice for students ."

Although administrators made an effort to lure people to the meeting, some students said more could have been done.

Signs in the student union the day of the forum proclaimed, in cryptic fashion, "Focus: 50-100" (the initiative's title, a reference to 50-year-old UNLV planning for the next half century), revealing little about what would go on at the meeting.

Adriel Espinoza, student body president and a panel member, said he didn't publicize this week's event on behalf of his organization because he was busy. Balancing student government responsibilities with classes, tests and reading meant, unfortunately, that advertising the gathering was left out this time around.

Student leaders will hustle to spread the news about town hall meetings on planning scheduled to begin next week, Espinoza said. Visiting classrooms, posting on Facebook and MySpace and talking to friends are all effective ways to get the word out, he said.

To attack apathy, the student government is considering using a text messaging service to alert the UNLV community about campus news and events.

Without sacrificing too much time, students and others can offer input on the planning process by commenting online at planning.unlv.edu.

Ultimately, instead of expecting students to go to meetings, planners may have to go to students, Smatresk said. Administrators will ask professors whether they are willing to give up some class time so officials can hear students' ideas about how UNLV should shape its identity and improve academic and other programs in coming years.

"If Muhammad will not go to the mountain," Smatresk said, "the mountain must come to Muhammad."