Let's Talk UNLV

Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a k u and v studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:21
Hello, and welcome to another episode of less talk UNLV public radio kid you in v 91.5. I'm your host today, Dr. Sam Iskills. My co host is out today on campus taking care of things on campus. I have a special guest with me today Dr. Reyes Luna. He is the Director of Student Diversity Programs. Welcome to the show, Dr. Ray. Yes,

Unknown Speaker 0:45
thank you, Dr. Scales. I'm happy to be here.

Unknown Speaker 0:47
Thank you. Well, the way that we start the show, we like to start the show by asking our guests their original origination story. So please tell us where you from and how did you end up here at UNLV of all places? No,

Unknown Speaker 0:58
that's a good story. Okay, so I'm originally from Compton, California, born and raised as my friends will say straight out of Compton is correct. A product of the system. So I love being from an LA background came to UNLV. So my origin story to UNLV is kind of strange. I retired from my previous institution, where I was the executive director for student housing at Cal Poly Pomona University. I was there 23 years, early retired, moved to Vegas always wanted to live in Vegas as my retirement destination. Got here. I was retired for i Two and a half weeks before I started working at UNLV as a letter of appointment for student diversity programs as the assistant director. Again, it was one of those funny stories. Dr. DMC I happen to work with her in her beginning stages as Cal Poly Pomona. We were both working in diversity program, she was doing Greek life. So I knew her way back then and 2002 moved here. I knew her travel stories were very similar to mine. Living in LA, spouse living in Nevada. And doing those drives back and forth takes a toll. So I knew she made her her way to UNLV. So I just happen to reach out and say, Hey, letting you know, I'm officially retired living in Vegas full time if you need help in any shape or form because I know you're new to your role. Happy to join in where I can. Her question to me is when can you start? Oh, and two and a half weeks later, I was the letter of appointment for Assistant Director for Student Diversity Programs. I now am the official director. That search ended in February. And so on March 25. I started off as the new director for student diversity programs.

Unknown Speaker 3:05
Excellent, excellent story. So how are you liking your new role?

Unknown Speaker 3:10
I came in at the busiest time of the year because as you know, we're going to be talking about affinity graduations. Those are all happening next week. So we had cultural heritage month that we just finished planning we just got on the wrapping up of the oppy may graduate APIA may Heritage Month. Yeah. Celebrations we just finished with women's history. And Black History Month. So busy times. Yeah, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 3:36
That's a very busy time to come in on on at UNLV. Let's let's dive right into this. Because like you just said we are going to be talking about graduation. So the affinity graduation. So what inspired the creation of affinity graduations here at UNLV.

Unknown Speaker 3:53
So that's another good story. Because as I'm new to this campus, I'm starting to find out from other folks who have been here. What has been the origin story. I know for the Native American graduation, I believe they're on their 24th graduation. So they been at UNLV. For some time. I still haven't finalized what the actual dates are for all of them, which that's going to be my new task. It'd be important to document how far back they've been here at UNLV. But I know they've been here. And so not only on this campus, but other campuses across the country. They have these affinity graduations. And so I'm just really happy to see that UNLV with this diverse student populations was at least 20 plus years. With these in mind Wow.

Unknown Speaker 4:41
Can you tell us about some of the affinity group graduations that you're that's taking place here like maybe in the next week or two weeks? You're at UNLV? Yes,

Unknown Speaker 4:50
Dr. Scales. We're having our very first affinity graduation, which will start on May 7. So we'll start on May 7 and go through May 10, may 7 is our lavender graduation for our LGBTQ plus IA students. And so that will be held. As I said on May 7, from six to 9pm. The location for the graduation is going to be off site, we're going to be at the center, which is located four miles away from campus. It's the LGBT Center for

Unknown Speaker 5:23
Nevada, okay, fairly close to the campus fairly close. The

Unknown Speaker 5:27
next day, we'll be jumping right on in to optimal graduation, which will be starting at 11. Till one in the ballroom in the student union,

Unknown Speaker 5:38
okay. Now for those students that don't know what it mean, when you say RP make graduations, what are those acronym stands for?

Unknown Speaker 5:45
Good question. The IPMA stands for Asian Pacific Islander, middle and Middle Eastern. And so that one again, as I mentioned is on May 8, from 11 to one, and the Student Union ballrooms. The next day is our Latinx graduation. And so that one will be on May 9, that is from five to 8pm. In the ballrooms, Student Union, May 10, we have two happening, we have the native graduation, which is going to be taking place on May 10, from five to 7pm, in the theater, and then we have may 10, as well, the African American Alliance graduation, which is from seven to 10pm. Also located in the ballroom in the Student Union.

Unknown Speaker 6:31
Excellent. So that's a lot of graduations coming up back to back to back to that. So I'm sure a lot of planning goes along with this. So what's the planning, like when you're doing something this huge, because these are totally different, all different graduations, and you have to like, kind of sorta stay around those things. So what's that planning process like?

Unknown Speaker 6:53
It's a lot of planning, it's a lot of juggling, it's a lot of conversations with different affinity groups, we want to make sure that we're getting the faculty staff of each of these cultural identities to be a part of the conversation. Some are a lot more active than some of the affinity groups that are smaller and younger. And so it's a balance of trying to make sure that we're incorporating the student feedback, the faculty staff feedback, and with what can fall within budget for how to present the best experience for our graduates as we can, and trying to stay true to the cultural component of their affinity groups. So that knowing that there's a diaspora of multi cultures and ethnicities within a specific group, Asian Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, for example, there's many different countries and cultures that fall within that. And so it's just paying attention to the fact that there's multiple identities within these subgroups that we're representing in these affinity graduations. So that takes a lot. We're a very short staff team, as you know, as my colleague, and student diversity of programs, were a mighty team of three. Two of them are letters of appointment. And then we have somebody who's helping out. And a small capacity, which is a huge thing for us, which is Imani Patterson. And so Raven is helping on outs, we've got these other staff members that have been volunteering. And I say volunteering, because it's a lot more than what's in their job description, to help plan these graduations. And so we're trying to create these committees that are going to be established for future years. This year, we just needed to make it happen. A lot of us are new, we didn't have a lot of the history. And so making sure that they happen for this, this graduating class was very important. And that was the focus. And so it was reaching out to the affinity groups, it was asking those who may have been a part of the planning or at least attended, what had been your experience so that we can then again, kind of incorporate that for this year, knowing that next year's graduations, I guarantee will be a lot bigger and better. But our numbers are actually very good. Right now. As of today, we pulled some numbers, we're looking like we're going to have good attendance for our graduates more so than the previous year. And so that's, that's for me a good indication that we're we're building something that's gonna pre exist us at my time at UNLV. And so I want to make sure that that's a legacy that all of our grads feel like they can participate and contribute and be acknowledged and recognized for the diversity that this university offers and connecting it back to the cultural dynamic of where they're from. Let allowing our students to be their authentic selves is important. And I think that's what we've tried to incorporate. With your question of what is in the planning process? What do we take into consideration? And it's a lot of, hey, let's ask the question, we may not know the answer. Let's see who does. And if we don't get an answer, we then make the best attempt possible with the knowledge that we have. So we can't, we can't please, everyone. But our goal is to make this a worthwhile experience for our students, so that they're fondly remembering their time at UNLV. Wow.

Unknown Speaker 10:35
So when I hear from your, from your answer to this question is, I'm hearing a lot of collaboration across campus, you being able to connect with different departments and with different people, and pulling this all together to get the voices from across campus with all of these affinity groups to make sure that they have a sense of belonging at these particular graduation. So I'm hearing collaborations I'm hearing says, belonging, these are all the things that I'm hearing you speaking about. So and to make sure that it's something that's that isn't memorable. And yeah, and when someone is working with a group, let's say like Abby Mayfield, for instance, there's tons of different cultural of people that falls under that and you want to make sure that they're represented. Exactly, you know, that they see something there that represents their culture. So

Unknown Speaker 11:21
and I know like for sorry, for STP, we're really working on the first the lavender op EMA line. And next, and we've just started helping a lot more with a native, but the African American Alliance, graduation, that is a well oiled machine that's been done not through the Department of student diversity programs. And so that one, I know there's a lot more of the faculty staff that are in the planning of that, which you're also part of that committee. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So SDP is in support. But we're not trying to take over something that's already that's been producing great success. And so we want to just make sure that we're helping when we can, and again, being a supportive of a colleague, and collaborate to the best of our ability.

Unknown Speaker 12:09
Absolutely. That sounds great. Sounds great. So what steps are taken to ensure that affinity graduation assessable and welcoming to all students, which I think you kind of touched on, but could you talk about that a little bit more?

Unknown Speaker 12:23
Well, again, it's important that we're trying to reach all of our students. And so when we send out through Involvement Center, the opportunity for students to participate, we really wanted to make sure that students are, are really pushing forward the information to all students who are graduating, so we're not just looking like, did they mark a box and said that they may identify in a certain way, we send it out to graduates, and so they can self select, which affinity graduation they would like to participate in they people have multi identities. And so then they can choose to be not just in this day, again, we want them to be the authentic selves. If somebody is biracial, we're not saying pick one, you can pick both, you can pick three. And if you're an ally, you can pick all and so it's we're really hoping that students who are coming forward to these graduations feel as though that they can participate, as long as they're coming to their graduation, respectful and wanting to be a part and this may have been maybe not their identity, but they grew up with it. And that's their background. And so we're allowing them to participate in that sense.

Unknown Speaker 13:40
Excellent. Excellent. So, Carlos, how are students speakers selected for the affinity graduations? Do we have student speakers for that? We

Unknown Speaker 13:50
do have student speakers. And again, that's where the collaboration comes into place, we start asking our affinity groups, do they have speakers that they would like to nominate or recommend, and then that starts our list. And then from there, we start to then reach out to folks to see one of their available during that time and date. And also for especially with our student speakers, we're wanting to make sure that one they've already registered themselves to participate in the graduation, and then making sure that we're getting nominations. And so that's how our speakers, we kind of reached on out find out who's, who may be a potential student speaker. And then we reach out and ask them if this was something that they see themselves being able to do. We've had folks who declined. Public speaking is probably something that they'd rather not have to do. And so they're like, I'm good. I just want to graduate and others were people who applied to be commencement speakers who may not have gotten it to be the larger, traditional graduate Mission commencement speaker. But now this gives them an opportunity to be a speaker at their cultural affinity graduation.

Unknown Speaker 15:07
Yeah, absolutely. And then they, you know, they have, of course, you know, family and friends that are they are at those personal graduations. Now do other students speakers for undergrad and grad opportunities undergrad speaker, graduating with a bachelor's degree or master's or higher for the for the grad students. What

Unknown Speaker 15:25
we did for all of these affinity groups is we open it up for any student who is graduating, whether it's a bachelor's, master's doctorate, to be invited to be a speaker. So further, I know some graduations typically have an undergrad and a post on speaker, we're just trying to make sure that we are open to any of them coming on in and being diverse in that selection. So we're having two speakers, and we have the ability to have somebody who's a postdoctoral post, bachelor degree and an undergrad, then we're going to want one of each. And if our nominations are coming in, and they're all undergrad speakers, then we're going to go with what our nominations are coming in as instead of just saying, we're not going to look at that we're just going to pick our own. We're really trying to make sure that we're getting the feedback and using that and applying in at this point in time.

Unknown Speaker 16:20
Excellent. Excellent. So what role do faculty and staff play in supporting these affinity graduations,

Unknown Speaker 16:26
they're welcome to attend all of them. And part of the good thing is, is we'll have food and all of these graduations, will be sending out reminders to the affinity groups, who are particularly taking part in these affinity graduations, and encouraging them to attend as well. And so starting tomorrow, it's a lot of emails, it's a lot of communication to send on now, to remind people, hey, don't forget this is coming on up, we hope to see you there. Another thing that we're anticipating making changes for the future, is looking at the dates and times of the graduations. These are happening during finals week. This was something that I inherited was these dates, because that's where rooms were reserved. And I don't know if it's necessarily the best time to have these affinity graduations when some of these students are protect maybe taking a final. And they have to choose do I take my final? Or do I do this affinity graduation, they're going to take the final. And so we're trying to move things to either the week before. So it would be actually happening the last week of April, the early part of May, during I guess I think the students, they referred as the what's called the week before finals, it's the study week. Yes. So enjoying study week, have the graduations instead of finals week, and to have them in the evenings so that they're not partake, not being done during the day, so that more parents, family and friends can attend and support their students who are graduating. And so that's a shift that we're going to we'll be making for next year. Excellent.

Unknown Speaker 18:14
Sounds good. When it comes to faculty and staff, we talked about earlier about them helping. So in what kind of capacity? Are they doing that? Are they saying, Hey, I'm of this particular heritage? And, you know, can we say we can have this particular entertainment? How are they performing in that role?

Unknown Speaker 18:36
So it really depends on the affinity group. So some will gather and come up with the plan and say these are our recommendations. As an affinity group, they'll ask, they'll send out an email to all of the members, who what recommendations do you have for keynote speakers? What recommendations do you have for potential entertainment? Should we do this or that, and then they bring that feedback when we have our planning meetings for how we're going to have these cultural graduations take place. So I think that's where the faculty staff have a say, as part driven through the affinity groups for each of these affinity graduation, that we're doing.

Unknown Speaker 19:18
Excellent, excellent. So with happen, events like these, I'm sure that they are challenges that comes up. So as these challenges come up with you know, maybe within the different affinity groups not saying that there will be but if they are, how are you prepared to face those challenges?

Unknown Speaker 19:38
These are gonna go very smooth and we won't have any problems. I'm pretty sure of it. But if we did, if their challenges do come up, I think part of what it is is being tried to be as proactive as we can to think out scenarios that we may run into, related to any of these affinity groups. I think a lot of people Planning has settled us in a good place. So the challenge, I think, for that we are facing and I touched base on just a little while ago, is the timing of the graduations, which we're going to make the change for next year, we can't do nothing about it this year. Having the number of students who are eligible to participate, that's a challenge. So having making the registration. And today because we have to get everything ready to go for numbers, as we plan for the event, which is happening next week, I think we probably could push the registration earlier and have given us a little bit more time. So that might be a challenge. I would like to see more graduates at this. And again, as I said, the numbers so far, are larger than the numbers we had the previous year. So for me, that's a win. But it's not where I'm going to stop at I mean, the bar is just barely being set.

Unknown Speaker 20:59
Yeah. Okay. When it came to came to advertising for these different graduations, how did you advertise for them.

Unknown Speaker 21:06
So a lot of it was done through Involvement Center. That's how students were able to register. And that's how emails and everything were being sent out to graduate students. We had a student undress. He was actually I'm sorry, they were the ones who came and designed the Latin x and the lavender grad flyers that we used. And the larger general flyer that we sent on out to Involvement Center that had all the affinity groups on it, they did a wonderful job. And this was a student whose background is in marketing, who said I would volunteer and help. Oh, wow. And so that's the how the flyers were developed. So address, thank you. Big help in that sense. And again, this was us being able to use the talents of our students who undress will be graduating and participating in two of our cultural graduations.

Unknown Speaker 22:02
Wow. So you're gonna need to undress for next year.

Unknown Speaker 22:05
Yeah, so hopefully, as an alum, if not a new student who could come forward and help us that would be great, because marketing and flyer making and design like that is not my area of expertise. I totally

Unknown Speaker 22:21
understand that. So how do affinity graduations align with the product goals and missions of UNLV.

Unknown Speaker 22:30
Again, it falls nicely in line in regards to being a tier two institution. And an all of the the mission statements in the value statements of the university diversity has been spoken upon greatly as a benchmark that the university prides itself on. And so by honoring these affinity graduations, it's only speaking to the diversity of this campus, that there is a need, there is a want. And I think there's a demand for it from our student population saying, we're being recognized. And we're not just enrolling the students to UNLV. But we're graduating them, which is the final benchmark that we needed to do as an institution. And I think, again, falls in line, making sure that we're graduating our students and not just enrolling them. And I think by supporting the affinity graduations, that showing the retention efforts that the university is working and striving towards. And it's also then highlighting that the diversity of our students who are graduating are reflective, not only of the campus, but of the Las Vegas community. Excellent,

Unknown Speaker 23:41
excellent. You know, and especially with UNLV, being a MSI institution, when our to serve an institution, I think it's a great idea, having these different affinity groups graduation, to actually just recognize those students and their particular culture, and letting them be themselves letting them feel, you know, seen have that sense of belonging that we always talked about, you know, and just being able to share and have fun with their families, asked, you know, of course doing all of that for the affinity graduates and then going on to the larger university graduation, which I think takes place on May 11, grade 11 crowd. So this is excellent. So can you share a memorable moment or moments or success story from the past affinity graduations at all.

Unknown Speaker 24:29
So again, new to UNLV haven't seen them happen here. But at previous institutions that I've been out, I've been involved with affinity graduations that at that last institution, and for me, it's having the opportunity and hopefully my future will be that I can be here to see the incoming first year students and transfer students who get here, get to know them as individuals, and then see them graduate at one of our affinity graduations. Yeah, And so for me, that's always been the hallmark of my experience with students is when I get to meet them as a first year student to the university, and then being a part of the affinity graduations, and seeing them walk across that stage, and reminding them where they started, and now where they're ending that. And so, for me, that's always been why I do the work that I do. And I think, again, stays connected to what this institution is about. And UNLV is supporting our diverse student populations. And again, as you mentioned, the minority serving institution where Hispanic Serving Institution, we're in an anti PC institution. So it makes sense that these are happening. And it also makes sense that these can get bigger. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 25:46
you know, and I'm new here at UNLV, as well, pure LOA as interim director, you you really love full disclosure, everyone. But even in my my experience at San Diego State, I came from San Diego State here to UNLV. I've been at those affinity graduations that I've taken taking part in them as well. And I've seen where families have gotten together on stage after the graduation is over. And we're able to take pictures, and I even heard one mother say, you know, it feels like I'm a part of this with with her daughter graduating. And she felt like she was a part of our daughter's graduation because it was a cultural thing. There was some cultural rituals that was done there that she was familiar with, she was able to go up on stage and taking pictures, but at the overall graduation at San Diego State that that opportunity wasn't. So they're able to do that at these affinities graduation. So it's excellent. Before we end, because we're coming to a close here, what advice? Or what would you like students to know when it comes to the graduations and what they need to do? And actually, let me ask you this, how can a student contact you if they want to contact you regarding the graduation, so

Unknown Speaker 26:55
the best way to get a hold of me is through email. And so that would be first name, ar e y e s period, l una, which is Luna. And then it's the@unlv.edu. So reyes.luna@unlv.edu would be the best way to send me an email, especially those who are not graduating this year, but are planning to be a graduate next year, we're going to start building out our committees in January of next year. So that we're planning far well in advance. And we're we'll be looking for some students to also be a part of that committee.

Unknown Speaker 27:31
Okay. And let me ask you this, is it too late for this particular graduating class students to email you if they wanted to volunteer just to get a taste and see what it's like, in case they're going to be graduating the next year.

Unknown Speaker 27:43
Now, I think if you're if they're students who are interested in volunteering, they can shoot me an email, and I'll be happy to reach out to them. And we can find a place for the students to participate and get involved. And again, hopefully, this could be an opportunity even for students just to come see what it looks like. So that they know what they could be expecting for their graduation. I doubt we're going to be turning anybody away. So absolutely

Unknown Speaker 28:07
great, great. Any, any closing remarks on any of any of this or something I didn't ask you that you would like for the audience to know.

Unknown Speaker 28:15
Now, the only thing that I would say again, this year is going to be our benchmark for these affinity graduations and they will only get bigger and better as the years go on. And so I encourage both faculty, staff and students if you have the time and and are available. Absolutely

Unknown Speaker 28:32
great. Thank you, Dr. Rich. Thank you so very much for coming here to public radio K, u and v 91.5. Let's talk UNLV and that's a wrap.

Dr. Renee Watson 28:45
For more or less talk to UNLV. Be sure to follow us on social media where you can get the latest updates on the show plus great behind the scenes content. We're on Facebook and let's talk about all the podcast Twitter. Let's talk UNLV and Instagram and let's talk UNLV

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