Sun editorial:

ONE to notice

UNLV students’ volunteerism wins national attention, belies school reputation for apathy

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

ONE, the campaign to fight global poverty, last year challenged students at more than 1,000 college campuses to get involved, and they did. Campus chapters were given a series of tasks, from calling members of Congress to boosting awareness of the campaign, and were ranked according to what they did.

This month the final rankings were released, and what got noticed was UNLV’s placement. The school was seventh in the nation, and judges praised the campus chapter for its savvy lobbying and outreach efforts.

As Charlotte Hsu reported in Saturday’s Las Vegas Sun, many people were surprised because of the campus’s reputation for apathy. Count Matt Higginson, Western states director of ONE, among that number.

“Las Vegas and UNLV have, obviously, a disproved reputation,” he said.

The UNLV chapter worked hard over the past year to spread the message. The group held a concert in conjunction with a Democratic presidential debate, sent students to talk to classes about the campaign and enrolled other campus clubs to help. UNLV’s chapter signed up nearly 2,000 people to support the campaign and got the attention of higher education system Chancellor Jim Rogers. Rogers will pay for a student to go to Ethiopia this summer to help build homes with Habitat for Humanity.

Chapter President Heather Brown said despite the reputation, the campus is far from apathetic.

“We face this whole, ‘You’re a commuter campus, you can’t do X, Y and Z, you’re not like these universities that have a community culture,’” Brown said. “That always frustrated me because I never felt like this was a commuter school and I couldn’t get involved.”

The UNLV chapter’s efforts over the past year are admirable and speak well of the students at the university. Through the ONE campaign, students found not only an issue they cared about but also ways to get involved and make a difference.

That is a powerful lesson.