UNLV
School of Architecture Accredited; Building Dedicated
UNLV Alumni
Association Donates 40 Trees to Campus
Phillips
Appointed Assistant Director of Alumni Relations
Former
University Regent Juanita Greer White Dies
Rawson,
Chapman Receive Top Alumni Association Awards
Water History
Documentary Wins Emmy
Finance
Professor Don Hardigree Dies
Morgan Named
Law School Dean; Marks Dean of Libraries
Albrecht
Appointed Vice President
UNLV's School of Architecture is on a roll. It recently dedicated its new, 75,000-square-foot building and shortly thereafter received notice that it had been granted accreditation for five years by the National Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB).
"We are thrilled with this recognition of the quality of architecture education at UNLV," President Carol C. Harter said of the accreditation. "This means a great deal to all of us, but especially to our architecture faculty and, above all, our undergraduate and graduate students.
"Also, the dedication of this fine facility is the culmination of more than a decade of hard work by many supportive members of the Las Vegas architecture community and the UNLV faculty and staff," she added. "It is also a special tribute to the late Paul B. Sogg, a Las Vegas real estate developer, who contributed a significant portion of the $8.25 million cost of this building. We are also extremely grateful for the contributions made by Johnny Ribeiro and J.A. Tiberti. Their continued involvement is typical of the outstanding community support that has built UNLV over the past 40 years."
Johnny A. Ribeiro, Jr., chairman of The Ribeiro Corp., contributed nearly $500,000 to support the landscape architecture program. J.A. Tiberti, chairman of Tiberti Construction Co., donated $600,000 for architecture program support.
The Nevada State Legislature approved funding for the Sogg Building in 1990. Designed by Swisher & Hall AIA Ltd. and built by Tibesar Construction, the building is located on the south side of the UNLV campus at the intersection of Tropicana Avenue and Brussels Road.
According to Michael Alcorn, director of the School of Architecture, the new building provides the classrooms, studios, library, and office space that are essential for accredited programs in architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and urban planning.
Only three schools of some 108 accredited programs have received five-year accreditation on their first try, according to Alcorn, who added that it is more common to receive three-year accreditation.
The accreditation is retroactive for two years, meaning that graduates back to 1995 will benefit, Alcorn said.
"Accreditation by the NAAB provides graduates the ability to be certified by the National Council of the Architectural Registration Board," Alcorn said, explaining that it is virtually impossible to become licensed as an architect without the NCARB registration.
Alcorn said the high quality of the new architecture building, and especially its library, played a large role in the accreditation process.
The School of Architecture offers a master of architecture degree, as well as bachelor of science degrees in architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. Some 400 undergraduate majors and 30 graduate students are currently enrolled in the program.
UNLV is a bit greener these days, thanks to a donation from the UNLV Alumni Association.
In honor of UNLV's 40th anniversary, the alumni group has donated 40 trees to the university.
Most of the trees will be heritage oaks and will be planted along the sidewalk to the west of the Rebel softball diamond. This area will be named the "Alumni Walk." Eventually, the trees will form an umbrella covering the sidewalk that leads from the Thomas & Mack Center parking lot to the site of the new Lied Library.
A second grouping of trees, to be known as the "Alumni Grove," will be planted between the James R. Dickinson Library and the courtyard of the Richard Tam Alumni Center. This grouping will include heritage oak trees, some smaller-leafed oak trees, and some small plants - a combination selected by Dennis Swartzell, UNLV's director of landscape, grounds, and arboretum. Kiosks, benches, and tables will be added to the area also.
"This is another example of the Alumni Association's continuing efforts to enhance the campus and university community," said Carl Cook, assistant director of alumni relations. "The cooperation of Dennis Swartzell and his staff in this endeavor was outstanding. Together, the UNLV Alumni Association and the university community are demonstrating the unlimited achievements that can be accomplished when working together with a common goal."
UNLV alumna Denise Phillips joined the university staff recently as an assistant director of alumni relations.
Phillips, who earned a bachelor's degree in recreation from UNLV in 1995, has worked for the Henderson Parks and Recreation Senior Center and the Valley View Recreation Center for the past two years.
During her college years at UNLV, she served as organizations board director for student government and was a member of the Student Alumni Association.
She was selected for her new post by a search committee composed of UNLV Alumni Association board members, faculty, staff, administrators, and students. She will work alongside Carl Cook, who was previously the sole assistant director of alumni relations.
Her duties will include guiding a number of groups and programs, includ-ing the Student Alumni Association, the Student Ambassador Program, and the Home-Away-From-Home Program. She will oversee and expand many of the association's annual and special events and will assist alumni office staff members in their day-to-day activities.
Former university regent and state legislator Juanita Greer White died in September.
White, for whom UNLV's Juanita Greer White Life Sciences Building is named, was a great supporter of higher education in Nevada. She served on the Board of Regents from 1963 to 1971 and was a charter member of the Nevada Southern University Land Foundation, which obtained land for the university campus at a relatively low cost.
When she ran for the Board of Regents in 1962, White campaigned for degree-granting status for Nevada Southern University, as UNLV was called at that time. Up until 1964, students who attended the Las Vegas campus received their degrees from UNR.
During her tenure as regent, the Las Vegas campus achieved full autonomy in 1968 and was renamed the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
White was a strong advocate of building a campus with sufficient acreage. She pushed for competitive faculty salaries and benefits to attract top teachers and advocated the development of both traditional academic and special interest programs.
White also supported higher education when she served in the state assembly in 1971 and 1972. In recent years, she remained a friend of UNLV, funding the White Distinguished Lecturer Series through the biological sciences department.
The UNLV Alumni Association has presented its highest awards to two UNLV alumni - state Sen. Ray Rawson and university supporter Bruce Chapman.
Rawson was chosen as the UNLV Alumni Association's 1997 Alumnus of the Year, the highest award the association can bestow.
Rawson, a dentist, was a member of UNLV's first graduating class in 1964, earning a bachelor's degree in zoology. He later returned to UNLV to earn a master's degree in anthropology in 1978 and went on to send his children to his alma mater as well. During the most recent legislative session, he was instrumental in efforts to increase funding for UNLV.
"My wife and I have marveled at the growth of UNLV, from our experience in the first graduating class to the graduation of our children," Rawson said. "It is an institution to be proud of. It is at UNLV that my eyes were opened to the world of possibilities. You have no idea how much this award means to me."
"Ray's heartfelt appreciation of his alma mater is demonstrated continually," said Carl Cook, UNLV's assistant director of alumni relations. "He has always taken action to assist his university in every way he can."
Bruce Chapman, director of new business development with Shonkwiler/Marcoux advertising agency, was selected to receive the UNLV Alumni Associa-tion's Distinguished Service Award recently.
Another longtime supporter of UNLV, Chapman attended the university from 1968 to 1971 and has contributed to many university programs, including the Valerie Pida Memorial Cheerleading Scholarship. He is also a contributor to the Candle-lighters, an organization that assists children who are terminally ill with cancer.
"Bruce's efforts are a testament to the great contributions that individuals can make to society," Cook said. "His time and energies devoted to charity - as well as his genuine concern for his alma mater - earned him the award."
Chapman was the first UNLV athlete selected in a professional draft; he was drafted by the American Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association. His wife, optometrist Pam Moore, is a UNLV alumna and a former member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors.
A documentary on the history of water in Southern Nevada that was a collaborative effort of UNLV's environmental studies department, the Clark County Conservation District, and television station KLVX, was recently honored with an Emmy award.
The Water Rules: A History of Water in the Las Vegas Valley received a Southwestern Area Emmy from the San Diego chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences recently.
The award came in the category of historical/bibliographical program.
Producers Dan Garrison of KLVX and Allie Smith, UNLV's campus green coordinator in the department of environmental studies, attended the awards ceremony.
Last summer, Smith and Garrison were honored for the documentary at the National Education Association's annual convention with an Award for the Advancement of Learning through Broadcasting.
The Water Rules was created for use in high schools and to educate the community about past water supply and usage patterns and how they have led to current supply and use.
Don Hardigree, an associate professor in the College of Business and the director of the Institute for Insurance and Risk Management, died suddenly in December after suffering an aneurysm. He was 49.
A three-time graduate of the University of Georgia, Hardigree earned his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in risk management and insurance.
He joined the UNLV finance department faculty in 1990 and went on to serve as the chair of insurance of the Nevada Insurance Education Foundation and as the director of the Institute for Insurance and Risk Management.
Known throughout the United States for his expertise and professional con-tributions in the areas of insurance and risk management, Hardigree enlisted the support and participation of the Nevada insurance industry to establish a strong insurance-education program in the College of Business.
He also advised the state of Nevada on insurance issues, served as co-editor of the Journal on Insurance Issues, and was much sought-after as a consultant.
UNLV has appointed the founding dean of the new William S. Boyd School of Law and a new dean of libraries.
Richard J. Morgan, the former dean of the Arizona State University College of Law, assumed his duties as dean of the law school Sept. 1.
Kenneth Marks, the former director of academic library services at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., assumed his duties as UNLV's dean of libraries Oct. 1.
Morgan had served as dean and professor at ASU's law college since 1990 and held the same positions at the University of Wyoming College of Law from 1987 to 1989.
Under Morgan's leadership, the university is preparing its law program to accept its first class this fall. The university plans to obtain American Bar Association accreditation for the law school at the earliest possible date, in time to allow the first class to sit for the Nevada bar exam.
Plans call for the program initially to occupy the existing Paradise
Elementary School building on Tropicana Avenue near the university until
UNLV's new campus library is completed in 2000. The law school will then
move into the existing campus library building, which will have been
remodeled for that purpose.
Morgan, who served as associate professor of law at ASU from 1980 to 1983 and as associate dean and professor from 1983 to 1987, practiced law in California from 1971 to 1980. He received his law degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1971.
Morgan has been active in both the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools, as well as other professional and law education organizations.
Before joining UNLV, Marks had served since 1990 as director of academic library services at East Carolina University, where he directed library faculty and staff participation in the program planning, construction, and occupation of a 160,000-square-foot library addition and the renovation of the library's existing 160,000-square-foot facility.
In previous positions, Marks served as university librarian and executive director of the Merrill Library and the learning resources program at Utah State University; associate director for public service at University Library, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and head of the reference department and reference librarian at the University of Tennessee.
Marks, who has published extensively in library journals, has written two books, Local Area Networks in Libraries and Using Windows for Library Administration.
He received a Ph.D. in educational administration from Iowa State University in 1978; a master's degree in library science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971; and a bachelor's degree in history and political science from Iowa State University in 1960.
Construction of the new library will begin this spring; the building will be open by 2000.
Fred Albrecht, formerly UNLV's executive director of alumni and
community relations, has been named vice president for university and
community relations.
"Fred has served the university well since 1970 and has been a valued member of the staff for many years," said UNLV President Carol C. Harter. "It gives me great pleasure to announce his promotion to vice president. I know he will continue to provide leadership in our efforts to reach out to our alumni, the university community, and the community at large."
Albrecht will be responsible for alumni relations, marketing and community relations, publications and reprographics, governmental relations, and news and public information.
A 27-year employee of UNLV, Albrecht served as director of alumni relations for 24 of those years. He came to the university as a graduate student and assistant basket-ball coach in 1970. In 1973 he began dividing his time between duties as alumni director and tennis coach.
He oversaw UNLV's athletic fund-raising efforts from 1983 to 1988 and
raised the funds to build the Richard Tam Alumni Center in 1989 and 1990.
He served as interim athletic director for several months in 1995, and in
September 1995 he was named executive director of alumni and community
relations.
