Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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Come on. You can't see what's going on what's going on? What's going on? Good morning, Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I'm very excited to have Dr. Whitfield here today. President of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Good morning, Doc. How are you? I'm well I'm gonna make a few announcements. And we'll get right into a little discussion between you and I, if you will. Great. Great, great. In terms of announcements, I just want to announce and express condolences to the to miss Eva Semmens, husband of George CMZ past just recently, in fact, his services this weekend. He will be missed. He's a longtime member of Valley View golf club and quite a golfer George is a few years older than I and he and I never really got a chance to, to golf but I did golf with his brother codice, who passed just six weeks ago. And codicils also not only a great golfer but a great tennis player as well. In terms of birthdays, deceased mother in law, Mary fountain was just a couple of days ago, Chief Eugene Campbell's birthday just recently, my sister manita Armstrong, and my deceased grandfather, Joe Watkins, just the other day. And of course, we gotta leave this Stephens coming up soon. And also Mr. Elsie Kennedy, my uncle, those are birthdays and I try to make sure I acknowledge folks for the birthdays as they are coming up during a particular month. The American Legion Post in women's auxiliary will host a Western affairs dance on October 21. At 7pm. They're at Doolittle in Eighth Street. So if you get a chance to pick up tickets stop by and think they're only like $10 or something like that. But it will be a great support to the American Legion Post teen and the women's auxilary auxilary. Dr. President Whitfield. How are you sir?

Unknown Speaker 2:52
I'm doing good, sir. How are you today? Hi,

Unknown Speaker 2:53
I'm well, I am willing, I was as you were walking over with some of your staff members. You were talking I'm thinking oh, I failed to ask if he was had been in the military? And you said no. So please tell us where you're from and and where you were born? In fact,

Unknown Speaker 3:09
well, actually, my dad was military. And one of the greatest compliments I've ever been given to somebody said, Well, were you in the military much wider than what you stand or whatever. I'm like, Yeah, my dad told me to stand up straight. But I was born in Japan. My father at the time was an radio repairman Flying C 130s. over North Korea. So you can you can guess my age because we haven't done that little while. But while we were there, he got the opportunity because he had I think he had an associate's degree there, had enough credits, had his associate's degree, got the opportunity to be able to go back to school and get his degree. So we left Japan. Actually, I heard this story 1000 times that they had to wait till I was six weeks old, because they had found out right before I was born, I had to wait till I was six weeks old. So in April of that year, let's just call it that year, my father flew back, started school to universe Colorado, Boulder, got a degree. He wanted to be an engineer, but they said we got enough engineers. I mean, you need to go into business statistics. Well, that time business statistics was computers. And one of the things that I found out very recently because I put together the math, and I think for those listening, you've really got to ask your parents and your grandparents a history of what's going on before because you'll learn a lot. What I learned was I was at a movie, I was watching Hidden Figures. My dad was telling the story all the time of when he started off these computers were in a big old room, right. I looked at Hidden Figures. I was like, yeah, he followed right on the backside of when the story timeline for Hidden Figures. So he was an African American officer at that moment in time. And that, I think, when I think of the success that I've had, it is built on AI while I did not have the the opportunity to be able to serve, that that service influences generations beyond just the time when people serve. So that's, that's my story. I'm sticking to it.

Unknown Speaker 5:16
All right. All right. That's interesting. You know, there's something that I've been intending to do for the last year and a half, and I've got to step up and make it happen. And that is I have still have some family members, aunts, they're in their late 70s. Early, and I'm 72 myself, but I want them to talk to my children and my grandchildren about things that occurred, because my grandfather, I think, my aunt Magno you just sent out the other day. He was born in 1899. Wow. And he's been he's been gone for probably 3040 years. But the bottom line is, I just don't recall as a young man thinking to ask him about what occurred during his life. But exciting man, born in Japan, on Japan, Fukuoka. That is cool. So what's your favorite pastime? I want to get into some more stuff about the school. But I definitely want to know, I think that people should know a little bit about you.

Unknown Speaker 6:08
Well, you know, because I was gonna say it's my vocation in my avocation is UNLV, because I love the school. But one of the things I do is that I love old cars, that's something even that I learned from my dad, old cars, old trucks in particular. And one of the things if you come out to the tailgate, that's going to be this weekend. I'm going to bring, bring it again, what we call the red bull ride. It's a 1969 1969, same years, we became the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 1969 blazer. And it Scarlet and gray. Oh, wow. So that's, that's that's how much this place is Nicolas, me as I painted one of my old cars, or had it painted? The our school colors? Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 6:51
That sounds pretty, pretty doggone cool. Now, where did why did you decide to seek to apply for the job at UNLV? You know,

Unknown Speaker 7:01
it's so interesting, because I, I was at, I gotta be careful telling our listeners that I was at Duke. And I was working in a provost office. And I always felt that they didn't need me there, that you got kids. And they had an organization and a system incredible one that made it so that their graduation rate was 95%. Through some cajoling from some colleagues, I applied for a job at Wayne State, similar kind of urban research university, with people with a lot of grit. And that turned on my desire for student success to help those who I know they're capable, because actually, they were like me, I wasn't the best student. But I had people helped me. And when they opened up the opportunity, I ran for it. And so was it provost at Wayne State University, loved the job, got convinced that I should just apply for this job. And it's so funny because I had applied for other jobs, too. I want to share with the listeners too, that everything's not about success. Sometimes you learn more from your failures than you do from from what you succeed on. And so I failed a couple times and thought, you know, something, I'm just not President. I don't act like President don't walk like a president. But what was interesting was the fit here, when I express myself with my passion for student success, my passion for trying to help communities and to make things better. It resonated and they picked me. And I felt blessed every day. I tell people all the time, man, I when I wake up in the morning and turn and put my feet on the ground and say it's great day to be a rebel.

Unknown Speaker 8:42
So this is your first Yes, sir. And

Unknown Speaker 8:46
came during time during the the the pandemic, August 24 was my first official day 2020. So if you're going to try to make a little bit harder, I don't think

Unknown Speaker 8:58
so. We're too many people around our students. That's

Unknown Speaker 9:02
what I was so excited. I didn't I didn't think about the moment in time that we were in. And so I showed up on first day, I was ready to go. I walked down to the quad and I didn't see nobody. I was like, Well, wait a minute. Oh, Mike, we got 30,000 plus students, actually officially this year 31,000 students, and I didn't see anybody. And what was interesting was is that I told my cabinet members, I said, you know, I've run into students who it wasn't like no one was here, there was just a very few number. So how amazing they were, I was like, Man, I want to meet every student. So my cabinet looked at me like you're crazy. You It's 30,000 students, what are you talking about? And I said, I gotta meet him. So we actually figured out a way that we created a digital president. It's the first one in the country that uses artificial intelligence. And it's so that we could figure out a way to connect with students because I wanted during that time We're going to talk about veterans. I think that this is something that that was uniformed during the pandemic of that people might not have felt that connection or felt that even that the university was was still open for business and still ready to be able to help folks. And that's why we created our the digital presence, the digital Keith with RSA, he looks better than me. And he knows a lot, but I don't think he's smarter than me. But I'm not gonna put that to the test, because I don't want to be raw. So

Unknown Speaker 10:28
I'm glad you brought that up as a topic here. Ai. So obviously, you're using it, so you believe in it. And, you know, I know a lot of people, myself included a little bit of concerned about things being taken over by this system, or whatever you want to call it. But it's interesting, I know, it's something that can be very, very useful. And obviously you use it to your advantage.

Unknown Speaker 10:56
Talk to us a little bit more about why tell you in the in the higher ed space, there's a lot of conversations going on about this. I actually wrote a piece and I think it's president to President something. And what my perspective is, is that it's like any new technology, we you're not gonna put the genie back in the bottle, right? So let's make sure that we are very thoughtful about how we use it about the the kind of guardrails that we have for good use and poor use. Our faculty here are so dedicated, they are looking at it saying oh my gosh, you know, people might misuse people misuse, I said, y'all are really smart, let's figure out how they might misuse it and set up the proper guardrails. And one faculty member reached out to me and said, Well, I'm afraid people might use this to cheat because it you know, you can get it to, to write a paper for you. I said, Well, that's that's true. But you know, cheatin, didn't start with AI. Gene has always been there. And what happens is, is that we as professors, because I am, I am still professor, we, as professors, actually, always have had that as a threat. And what we have to do is to figure out a way to teach and assess our students knowledge and ability in ways that discourage that. But if, if we think we're gonna, we've never stopped it, so it happens. So let's figure out how this tool could be used. I'm not gonna get way into it. Because I can nerd out on this. It's been fascinating, because it's been some of my faculty that some are faculty that have shared with me, well, you know, what it is, is that you can take and figure out different ways to assess students knowledge that, that basically goes around it, or actually, this one professor said, hey, you know, some, I'm just smack it in the face, I'm gonna tell the students first you write a paper that uses AI, and then you get an A small group, and you have to be able to assess what it was for, see, it's taken and flipping it. Yeah. And if we were, if we don't stick our head in the sand, we can figure out how we can actually use this to our benefit, rather than being so afraid that it might be something that just is whatever, but it is, it is powerful. And that's the reason why we need smart people to be thinking about how it's used, and how Choose wisely and ethically. And for the betterment of me, excellent,

Unknown Speaker 13:13
you know, on a much smaller scale, I used to tell people, you know, as you build and work your resume, don't just put stuff down, because somebody's gonna ask you about, well, what do you do on United Way board of directors, and you get to just putting down stuff just to, you know, to fatten it up, if you will. But what's your discipline as a professor,

Unknown Speaker 13:34
so I can, I can claim a lot of things, my real undergraduate degrees in psychology, my graduate degrees and lifespan development, but my professional identities as a gerontologist, I study aging, I study cognitive aging, and African American and in particular, this, this, there's a little bit of insight about me that comes from that because as I was finishing my, my PhD, I learned all of these great practices. And then I was like, Well, so what am I going to make as my career was as my research approach? And one of the things that I was fascinated by was my my grandfather, who had a third grade education. But man, he could talk me down, he could always our office, like, the mind isn't as simple as just thinking it's A, B, or C or what you got in this class. So I wanted to study cognition in a group that had really not been studied before, which was African American. And I was sharing with somebody today that there were a couple of people said, well, that's not the way you do it. You're supposed to compare blacks to whites, and I said, Well, whites had been studied but blacks admits that he so I'm gonna go where nobody's been. So I'm gonna go over there. So I actually published the first paper on cognition and African American elders. And I that old, but it was it was amazing that it hadn't been done before I was somebody had to tell me that it actually hadn't been done. I was just doing work that I thought was a Important work to answer interesting questions. But that's something I've dedicated my life to, I'm actually still an active, let's call it still active researcher. And my last study was on longevity. And African Americans and African American families in particular, that when you look at African Americans, they tend to die earlier. Yes, but those who live on have lived through incredible health challenges, incredible social challenges. So if you want to look at a group who you want to model successful aging after, look at a group that is the most adversely affected but still makes it.

Unknown Speaker 15:35
You know what, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more, we have Dr. Whitfield, and we will have him for the entirety of the show today. This brother has a lot to say. And you know what? I'm not gonna let you get near my wife because she keep telling me because you studied Oh, people tell you oh, you know, look at you when you get up. Look at my kids. Look at your walking daddy, leave me alone.

Unknown Speaker 15:59
You're still walking? Right? That's the point. Exactly. It's

Unknown Speaker 16:02
still playing golf. Two or three times a week doc, and my back be killing me. But I take a couple of answers I go. So that's that's very intimate. And you did say you have over 31,000 Students

Unknown Speaker 16:14
UNLV, just for the first time ever, this year. And NACA change tomorrow, because because we do try to keep students sometimes. But we're over 31,000 31,000, like 60 students. We also had one, we had the largest incoming class that was 4700 and some change. So as other schools are running into enrollment challenges, UNLV has been seen for the incredible place that it is, and more and more people are coming here. So what

Unknown Speaker 16:43
tell us about? I understand, because I did look up a couple things. And I did recall hearing that one of the former presidents did start to get into the research as a university. Explain to the listening audience a little bit about what does that mean? And

Unknown Speaker 16:59
it's fascinating, Carol harder. Yeah, back in. Even the late 90s had this, I've seen this, the newspaper article said UNLV could be the next UCLA and people laughed at it. And look at us now. We're a research one institution, which rep, you know, to we always say that and I say what does that the average person doesn't really necessarily know what that means. What that means is that in terms of research, graduate and graduate students were in the top 3% in the nation. So that is something that's an important moniker. But it's it's one of those things where, you know, it's kind of like a nameplate, what really matters is the engine behind the car. And that we have this incredible university that changes lives, over 130,000 graduates. So many of those two, they get multiple degrees from UNLV. And I can tell you that for me, and I do believe I speak for the university, the happiest day, the best day of the year is graduation day. Because you see pure joy for people that did there, they man they worked every day, to be able to get across the finish line. And it's just, it's just, it's an exhausting day for me, I shake 1000s of hands. But each and every one of them I'm I take a certain pride not even knowing them absolute just knowing that they achieved that accomplishment. Well,

Unknown Speaker 18:23
I've been a training officer for Las Vegas Fire and Rescue. In fact, my last six years, after 33 years of service, I was the fire chief. And the pride that you take when people come across this age to graduate to become a firefighter. And those when they get promoted, it makes you feel so good about maybe I testaments such a way that it made them want to achieve more. That's I'll say it's

Unknown Speaker 18:48
about that contribution that you make, and it's appropriate for me to to say it gets said a lot, but it's definitely meant, and that is thank you for your service.

Unknown Speaker 18:57
For sure. Now, how many part time and full time staff do you have? If you know our time

Unknown Speaker 19:04
full time staff, it's roughly about 4900. Because when we put it together, it's it's it's now over 35,000. And somebody they pulled the most inane thing of that. When if if you put everybody on our campus at one time, which were a campus that has ebbs and flows in terms of how many people are on campus at one time, but if you do where the 11th largest city in the state.

Unknown Speaker 19:33
Well, so as far as housing, is that farmed out or do you run the house? The university so we have

Unknown Speaker 19:41
a mixed model with that. Okay, good. Man, you asked me some good questions. I'm glad I've been asked these questions before. We have about 1800 beds on campus. We're now back to fully we had a reduced number that we we had because we wanted to make sure that if somebody needed to be isolated because COVID had that we had to save rooms. But now we're back at the 1800. But if you look and see there's eco 360, there's the gateway building, there's the degree, if you look at around our campus, there's a little over 5300 beds, okay for people to be able to do. But, you know, 70% of our folks come from Clark County. And so when you think about 70% of 30,000, you're like, Okay, well, so there's only so many people that live on campus, but but we are part of the community, it's reason why the university has to reflect community, because that's where students come, that's who we serve. And that's what we're about.

Unknown Speaker 20:34
So the 1800 is under the help of the universities, yet it's on campus and the other housing is run by other folks.

Unknown Speaker 20:42
Exactly, exactly. We work with them, we have pretty good relationships with them, I want to see us do more, because I want everyone to be able to have that full college experience. And so we talk with the other vendors about different kinds of programming and making sure that their folks maybe aren't trained by us, but but have knowledge of the kinds of things that students need to do, because some of the students success that we want to see happens where you live, right. So we extend ourselves to that as well. Absolutely,

Unknown Speaker 21:11
absolutely. Now, tell me, how are the veterans faring, as far as you know, studying graduation, etc. And I did hear some of your staff mentioning, some stats as we were coming over.

Unknown Speaker 21:24
You know, I don't have it here in front of me. But we are considered in, like in the top 10. In terms of, of veteran friendly universities, the number I don't have in front of me, which, you know, you're gonna make me have to get what is our veteran graduation rate, because that's one of the ways in which we we manage and monitor with our successes. But I think the bigger piece of our successes is that we are a veteran friendly university, we have 1700 military affiliated students that will be here this fall, which is, and of those that includes 400 new students that will be joining UNLV, this fall, we graduated more than 475 and 2022. And since we're not through with 2023, I can't tell you what that number is, but our veterans, it's, it's, it's amazing what they can contribute. And it's just like, what you contribute anytime, when when you are in military service, or even when you're in the community of that their presence actually, I think makes us a better university. So while we're, we're veteran friendly for a reason. And that is, is because part of our strength as an institution, is those souls that have taken and served our country and what they bring to the classroom. It's always interesting and unique. It's a perspective that that others benefit from. Absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 22:50
I've had I've mentioned to you I've had Russ Bryan on before I'm gonna get him back home, it seems like you guys got a very tight, you know, very close knit veterans. Would you say? Not audience, but community here in terms of, as you said, your veterans film. So I do want to get Russ back on because I again, I appreciate the work that you guys are doing. Now, in terms of scholarships, are there any that are, that are particularly for for veterans that you're aware of?

Unknown Speaker 23:22
We do have some, you know, so much can be done through, you know, veterans benefits, but even navigating that can be difficult. And so what we have is people that helped to be able to navigate that we do have some, you have to be careful, because you can't make scholarships, so isolated, that everybody can compete for them. Right, you can have I'm not supposed to be saying this publicly, I guess. But you're gonna have some that, you know, are definitely designed for people of have a particular background. And so we do have some that our veterans use quite regularly in terms of being able to support what they do.

Unknown Speaker 24:01
Wonderful, wonderful. So I know you must have some strategic goals that you came forth with as you came and put your team together. And certainly wanted to thank you, your outgoing assistant, our friend, she was very helpful in helping me make contact with you.

Unknown Speaker 24:19
If I try to make it hard to catch me, because we got we got a lot to do around here. And actually, I want to come back to another point because I do have one note to add to that that our legislators really just helped and pushed which is a purple heart recipient tuition waiver that runs through NCCIH. And so any purple heart recipient with the all the benefits, exhausted is granted a tuition waiver through our veterans office, I mean they they help to coordinate all of it. We also, through our student government, have 10 annual $1,000 scholarships for veterans and their family members. So again, it's It's very, very broad, tries not to, you know, it's it's inclusive as it can be. It's not one branch of the service or another. But those are just a couple of the opportunities we have. And it's the reason why you brought up Ross. I am I was a fan from him from day one. And it's tough to my dad was Air Force and he's army and not supposed to. But man, he is just so sharp. He cares so deeply about our veterans. It's the reason why they've been successful this

Unknown Speaker 25:27
great. So strategically, as we start to wind down the show, any particular thoughts that you brought to the team that you want to try to accomplish as, as the leader

Unknown Speaker 25:41
we need a couple of shows for UNLV is an incredible university that has potential that has yet to be reached. I am just living one of the most blessed lives there could be to be able to be a servant leader of this university, particularly around veterans, I have a couple of things that I want to see happen. We have our limits, but that never has stopped me much before. So I've got two segments goals. One of them is is to be able to highlight and to be able to actually provide a place for our veteran services, that is as visible as possible, because I want to make sure that any and every veteran actually uses the full capacity that this university brings. We are making some wonderful inroads in with Nellis which we've not had before. I was I was sharing with my group, you know, I haven't been on a Air Force installation probably in 35 years went on. Now listen, and as soon as I went past the guard gate, I said I'm home. And so we're going to see if there's ways in which we can help those folks as well. For education opportunities, be able to pursue them. So those are just some of them, but it's to improve our graduation rates. It's to bring more and more people to UNLV. It's to increase our research and increase the experiences that students get so that they can go out and be prepared for the world.

Unknown Speaker 26:55
So that kind of segues into my next question is, Why should students attend you want to attend UNLV

Unknown Speaker 27:03
UNLV is I believe in the landscape of higher education, it's going to be one of the true bastions for everywhere everyone comes to. It's a place it's in the city. And so it has the wonderful everything that a city gives you. But at the same time, it is its own little bastion of where you can come and actually, people find this weird, but to be able to fail to be able to explore to be able to learn about yourself to be able to learn more. We live in a society that that requires that we constantly grow in terms of what we know. So a university is the perfect home for that. Because we have so many different educational offerings, it offers the opportunity for every single person to come here and feel that they belong, to feel that they can actually explore, and they grow as people. That's that's what I see every single time. And it's one of the things that makes my job a great job to be able to have is to be able to see the growth people have both intellectually and personally.

Unknown Speaker 28:01
So I guess you have from teenagers up to folks probably my age, I know that there's a program that you gave is more of a What did you call it a salehoo? Type? Yes, yes, I've been I've been thinking about getting involved with Dr. Whitfield, we are so appreciative of you coming in, you shared some nuggets with our veterans community. So we thank you so much. And I look forward to having you back on here. And if I can catch you, and I will certainly always drive it because you got a lot to bring to the table,

Unknown Speaker 28:30
always try to catch me. As Ross knows, and I do this for all of our students. I care about every single soul that we have on this campus. But boy, the veterans, I'm just I have a particular connection as I shared. And I want to be able to do everything in our universe to be able to provide everything that we can to be able to help make them successful. So and thank you all to everyone who's listening for your service. It is appreciated.

Unknown Speaker 28:56
All right. All right, ladies and gentlemen, veterans out there we got to open campus here. We got to get more veterans into this university. So we thank Dr. Whitfield for his service and we'll get Ross Brian on to talk a little bit more detail about some of the things that have gone on from the program that he runs Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 29:15
We appreciate you thank you sir.

Unknown Speaker 29:49
sale day tilde hey when they stay on the payment, we

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