Bennett Gift to
Fund Professional Development Building
Harter To Serve
on NCAA Board, Council on Educational Exchange
Outstanding
Alumnus, Silver State Award Recipients Named
UNLV Receives Law
School Gifts
College of
Urban Affairs Named for Greenspun Family
Two Longtime
Members of the University Faculty Die
Brendan
O'Toole Named 1996 Nevada Professor of the Year
UNLV
Professors in Documentaries
The school for at-risk elementary school children and the professional
development center will be located on 8.3 acres on the northwest portion
of the campus, according to Harter, who said the school will be moving to
the campus in 1998 as part of a unique three-way agreement between
McCarran International Airport, the Clark County School District, and
UNLV.
"Thanks to Mr. Bennett's generosity, we will join the professional development building and the new Paradise Elementary School in a complex that will likely become a model for such programs," Harter said. "It is pioneering programs like this - built on collaboration and benefiting the entire community - that are enabling UNLV to become a premier urban university. We are most grateful to Bill Bennett for making this possible."
Under the agreement, McCarran International Airport is buying from the school district the property on the south side of Tropicana Avenue at Swenson Street where Paradise Elementary currently is located. UNLV will provide land for the construction of a new school, and the Clark County School District will build the school, using funds from the sale of the existing property.
The new elementary school will be a professional practice school for educating at-risk students, training current teachers, and developing future teachers.
Kay Carl, the school district's associate superintendent for elementary education, said this project will allow the district - in concert with faculty in UNLV's College of Education - to better serve this special group of students while learning new methods of teaching at-risk students.
Thanks to Bennett's gift, the professional development building and school will be enhanced by state-of-the-art computer and audiovisual equipment. According to John Amend, UNLV associate vice president for administration, the professional development building will be approximately 8,000 square feet and include a seminar room, computer lab, classroom and office space, and a control room for high-tech equipment.
The new Paradise Elementary School will be about 60,000 square feet and will be based on one of the standard elementary school designs created by Domingo Cambeiro Corp. for the school district. The school is expected to open in August 1998.
Harter will be one of 15 university chief executive officers and the only woman with full voting privileges on the NCAA board, which governs college athletics. She will represent the Western Athletic Conference, which UNLV joined in 1996.
As the WAC representative to the NCAA board, Harter is spearheading an effort to change the system being used to select football teams to participate in bowl games.
"This is a wonderful opportunity to take part in the governance of the NCAA at an important time in its history," said Harter, who also serves on the NCAA Presidents Commission. "I have very strong feelings about the bowl selection system and plan to work diligently to improve it."
Harter previously served as a member of the NCAA's Division I Board of Directors Transition Team that recently completed a year-long effort to reorganize the way the NCAA governs college athletics.
She was also recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Council on International Educational Exchange.
The council, founded in 1947, is a non-profit, non-governmental
organization dedicated to helping people gain understanding, acquire
knowledge, and develop skills for living in a globally interdependent and
culturally diverse world.
The Outstanding Alumnus Award is given each year to a UNLV alumnus who has exemplified leadership, service, and dedication to the university, the Alumni Association, and the community.
Berkley has been a steadfast supporter of UNLV, having served as a member of the UNLV Alumni Association's Board of Directors and its legal committee. She has been a donor to both the association's scholarship fund and to the fund to build the Richard Tam Alumni Center. Berkley also served as student body president at UNLV and as voluntary legal counsel to UNLV's student government.
She has been an active member of many civic organizations in Southern Nevada, including the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, the Democratic Women's Club of Clark County, and the Allied Arts Council
The Silver State Award is presented each year to a non-alumnus who has made outstanding contributions to the state, the university, and the Alumni Association.
Guinn was also chairman of the board and president of both Southwest Gas Corp. and PriMerit Bank and has been an active member of numerous civic organizations, including the Nevada Development Authority, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, and the United Way of Southern Nevada.
Both Guinn and Berkley were honored at this year's Homecoming reception and were introduced during halftime at the Homecoming game.
Boyd announced additional pledges of support for the law school of some $2 million, bringing the total of private pledges for the school to about $7 million. These pledges came from Sunbelt Broadcasting Co. Channel 3 and James E. Rogers, president and chief executive officer; the Marnell family; Michael Gaughan, chairman of the board and CEO, Coast Resorts; John D. (Jackie) Gaughan, president, El Cortez Hotel & Casino; Warren Nelson, a member of Boyd Gaming's board of directors; Sam and Pat Lionel; and Boyd Gaming, represented by William R. (Willie) Boyd.
William S. Boyd has been a member of the UNLV Foundation Board of Trustees since 1983. He received the Distinguished Nevadan Award from the Board of Regents in 1985 and the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from UNLV in 1986. He, his family, and Boyd Gaming have given UNLV more than $3 million to support a wide variety of academic and athletic programs.
Boyd and Kenny Guinn, UNLV Foundation board member and long-time supporter of higher education, were instrumental in securing the additional gifts for the law school.
Current planning calls for the law school to enroll its first class in 1998 and eventually to have a student body in excess of 400. The school would seek provisional and full accreditation at the earliest opportunities, assuring all graduates of being able to sit for the Nevada Bar exam.
The school would specialize in issues of local and regional importance, such as gaming, mining, water, and environmental law.
Last summer the Board of Regents endorsed a detailed implementation plan and directed the chancellor to include the law school in the UCCSN 1997-99 budget request to the Legislature.
The Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, which was created during the university's recent academic reorganization, contains the Hank Greenspun School of Communication, named for the late founder and publisher of the Las Vegas Sun; the School of Social Work; and the departments of counseling, criminal justice, environmental studies, and leisure studies.
"We are very grateful to the Greenspun family for their ongoing support of our programs," Harter said.
"When our new Greenspun College of Urban Affairs was formed during the reorganization of our academic units last summer, we grouped together programs that would contribute to UNLV's institutional goal of becoming a premier urban university by addressing the needs of the urban area in which we are located. By supporting this new college, the Greenspuns are helping UNLV fulfill its mission of meeting the educational, work force, and research needs of Southern Nevada and beyond."
Initial proceeds from the new bequest will be used to fund student scholarships and to hire Greenspun assistant professors in the college.
Harter also announced that kinesiology professor Bob Rossman, chair of the department of leisure studies and a member of the UNLV faculty since 1992, will serve as interim dean of the new college while a national search is conducted for a permanent dean.
Barbara Greenspun, publisher of the Sun and wife of the late Hank Greenspun, said, "Hank Greenspun committed his life to the betterment of a growing Las Vegas community. That is why my family created the Hank Greenspun School of Communication, to continue his dream. Today, we are fortunate to be able to further his goal of a well-educated community by creating the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs."
A. Wilber Stevens
Retired English professor and poet A. Wilber Stevens died in September after a long illness. He was 75.
Stevens, who joined the UNLV faculty in 1973, was also an editor, a drama and music critic, an actor, and a scholar.
He held teaching posts at a dozen colleges and universities during a career that spanned five decades. He taught at the University of Washington, Idaho State University, Park College, and Prescott College, in addition to serving as a Fulbright Professor of English and American Literature at the University of Mandalay in Burma, the University of Chulalongkorn in Thailand, and the University of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
Stevens authored more than 100 published poems, more than 15 articles, and eight book-length works. He also wrote hundreds of theater, music, and book reviews.
He was widely recognized as editor and publisher of Interim, a literary magazine, and as a theater and music critic for the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
He held a bachelor's degree from Brown University and master's degrees
from both the University of London and the University of Washington,
where he went on to obtain a doctorate in 1957.
Roosevelt Fitzgerald
Longtime member of the UNLV anthropology department Roosevelt Fitzgerald died in October following a long illness. He was 55.
Fitzgerald, who was born in Natchez, Miss., April 14, 1941, received his bachelor's degree from Jackson State University in 1963 and his master's degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1968.
In 1971 he came to Las Vegas and to UNLV, where he became known as a researcher and writer of the history of the African-American experience in Las Vegas. He directed the university's ethnic studies program from 1971 to 1996.
In addition to his academic writing, Fitzgerald wrote a series of historical columns for the Sentinel-Voice newspaper in Las Vegas.
A popular teacher and major force in the development of UNLV's ethnic
studies program, "Fitz," as he was known to friends and colleagues, made
numerous presentations at academic conferences. He was also a
sought-after speaker at community events.
O'Toole, who joined the UNLV faculty in 1992, has received four other teaching awards, including the Alex G. and Faye Spanos Teaching Award from UNLV and the Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers.
He has taught nine different undergraduate and graduate courses in the
field of engineering and authored some 20 scholarly publications, many on
the subject of applications for composite materials.
O'Toole has also served as a faculty adviser to teams of students who have won regional and national engineering design competitions. He was one of the faculty advisers to a team that set a record - and took first place in the 1995 Society for Automotive Engineers West Coast Supermileage Competition - by designing and building a vehicle that got 3,470 miles per gallon.
Another of his teams took first place in the American Society for Mechanical Engineers Region IX Human-Powered Vehicle Design Competition, also in 1995.
O'Toole, who received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from the University of Delaware, is a member of numerous professional and university organizations. He has also served as a consultant to several private companies.
The Professor of the Year program, which was started in 1981, salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching sponsors an annual national competition from which the state winners are also selected; 585 candidates were nominated for this year's U.S. competition.
Each candidate must be nominated for the award by his or her institution and receive letters of support from current or former students, colleagues, and presidents or academic deans. Judging of the competition takes place in several stages.
Award recipients were selected on the basis of the following criteria: service to students, institutions, the community, and the profession; teaching informed by scholarship; impact on and involvement with students; and support from colleagues and current and former undergraduate students.
In a personal statement he was asked to submit with his entry form, O'Toole attempted to describe his approach to teaching.
"I feel it is my responsibility to motivate my students to ask questions because we all learn at a different pace," he wrote. "I listen and respond to any question, no matter how trivial it might seem. I don't want to discourage anyone from asking questions because one of the most effective ways to learn any new topic is to have a discussion about it with someone who knows it very well.
"I also try to provide students some of the educational opportunities which I regretted not having as an undergraduate."
McCullough appeared in November on the A&E Network's popular show,
Biography, talking about American humorist Mark Twain.
"I was flattered that the people at Biography chose me as one of the two Twain experts they wanted to interview for the show," said McCullough, who chairs UNLV's English department.
McCullough, along with Howard Baetzhold of Butler University, authored The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood, which was published by the University of Georgia Press in 1995.
UNLV history professor Hal Rothman appeared in December in a documentary about the history of Las Vegas.
The documentary, titled Las Vegas, had two parts: Las Vegas: Gamble in the Desert and Las Vegas: House of Cards.
Rothman, who has been a member of the UNLV faculty for five years, was interviewed extensively for the show. Among the topics he discussed were the general history of Las Vegas, social issues, the construction of Hoover Dam, the rise of the gaming industry, and the entrance of corporations into gaming.
Rothman is currently working on two books about Las Vegas.
