Let's Talk UNLV

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU N 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.

Dr. Sammie Scales 0:19
Hello and welcome to fall 2025 Welcome to Let's Talk UNLV, the podcast here, official podcast for UNLV today, we have a very special guest, and I have my guest, introduce

Stephanie Cooper 0:32
yourself. Thank you. My name is Stephanie Cooper, and I am the Executive Director for Student support and advocacy.

Dr. Sammie Scales 0:39
Thank you so much. Stephanie, first off, congratulations on your new role. Can you walk us through what the creation of the Office of Student support and advocacy means for UNLV,

Stephanie Cooper 0:48
yes. So we developed this office with the intent of providing a one front door approach so one place where students can come who need help maybe they're suffering a crisis situation, or they're suffering an insecurity of sorts, and they're not really sure where else to go, where to find resources, who to talk to. Maybe they're a little bit embarrassed or ashamed, and so we provide this opportunity where we can curate a solution for them, so they don't have to spend all their time digging through the hundreds of different resources on campus, we can help them get connected quickly and easily to a relevant resource.

Dr. Sammie Scales 1:27
Oh, wow, that's excellent, and I'm sure that's gonna be a useful resource here on campus. So with doing this, how long have you been here on campus, and where did you start your career? Here at UNLV,

Stephanie Cooper 1:37
yep. So I've been here for 18 years. I just had my 18th anniversary a few days ago. I started in the office, in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. I've been in that office for the entire time that I've been here. I've held many different positions. I started here as a classified a, a three, and I worked my way up. I ended up getting my degree here at UNLV, my undergraduate degree as a non traditional student. And I learned a lot being a student here. And I learned that higher education in general can be a little bit difficult to navigate, and I have worked with students who have problems the entire time that I've been here, in every role that I've been here. Like I said, I learned a lot being a student myself, and that helped me serve other students in my various roles that I've helped,

Dr. Sammie Scales 2:29
yeah, and that's what I was just thinking for the first note, note that I just made was that you're I didn't know you was a

Stephanie Cooper 2:33
rebel. So I am a rebel. Yes, I am. That is very good to know,

Dr. Sammie Scales 2:37
and it's also an excellent to have someone in the role that you're in. That's what actually a student here knows some of those situations that students may face at some point. So with you being here, how has your journey shaped your leadership style here at UNLV?

Stephanie Cooper 2:53
So it's just being here. I've just developed so much compassion. I tend to be a bit of a hand holder, and not everybody agrees with that philosophy, but I would consider myself pretty gentle. I know kindness goes a long way when a student is suffering a situation, or maybe they're just exhausted because they've been to six different offices and they don't know where to go, and really the answer to their question takes about one minute. I just have a lot of sensitivity to that. And so because I've seen a lot of students and also been through the system myself, I have a lot of grace, patience, compassion and kindness for students, and that has carried over into my role and into my leadership role with my team.

Dr. Sammie Scales 3:41
Wow, that's excellent. So you pretty much just cut out the red tape and say, Hey, this is what you need. And you know, I can definitely appreciate that. We call it the hand holding technique to get a student through a particular situation. So with every student, though, every student is unique, and they have different challenges. So what are some of the most common barriers students students face when seeking support, and how is SSA working to bridge those gaps?

Stephanie Cooper 4:08
It's a great question. So I always say student issues are very nuanced. I don't ever get duplicative issues. So there may I may see a lot of student issues in the same type of a category. For instance, a lot of our insecurities. Food Insecurity is a big one on campus, housing insecurity, technology needs, academic supplies, childcare, transportation. Those are some of the big ones that we see for our insecurities. And then we also see crisis situations, unforeseen situations, but those are, those are the big those are the big buckets that we pull from. And so when, when we see students that come through our front door, we already have all these resources built in that we can get students connected to right away. We want to. Make sure that we are, like you said, cutting through the red tape and giving equitable easy access to resources for our students who are in the most need. It's hard to ask for help. It's really, really hard to ask for help. And so we're trying to de stigmatize and remove the shame out of asking for help and getting students connected with these resources.

Dr. Sammie Scales 5:21
Okay, so with your office, so that must mean that you're working collaboratively with other departments on campus. Is that how it works?

Stephanie Cooper 5:33
Most students that come through our door don't just have one problem. They don't just come to us with one problem. They often come with five or six problems that cross five or six different departments. I have been so lucky to build relationships across campus and build a network. I always say it takes a village to solve student issues, and so it's very collaborative. I don't ever send a student to an empty office, to a voicemail to a department. I always get them connected to somebody or the proper form to fill out whatever it is. We always want to get students connected so that they can get all of their problems solved. We're not just taking care of one problem in our office and then saying, go over to this office, go to that department, fill out that form, figure it out. We don't do that. We don't kick the can down the road,

Dr. Sammie Scales 6:19
so you actually get it resolved? Wow, that's excellent. So with so many services available, it can get overwhelming sometimes for students. What are a few of the underrated services, or lesser known services and resources that you wish student knew more about here on campus?

Stephanie Cooper 6:35
Well, it's interesting. I hate to speak for the entire student body population for my office, I wish that more students used our How can we help form? I manage that, and that's just sort of a basic form where students who don't know where else to go can just fill out a very simple form, and it comes to our email inbox, and then my team will respond, and if it's a crisis situation, we can escalate it. The other resource that I took ownership over last year is our Student Resources webpage, and our How can we help form is linked on that page too. So there's a myriad of resources on there. It's pretty user friendly. I don't know how many students are using that resource right now, but I do refer a lot of students to that webpage.

Dr. Sammie Scales 7:19
Okay, and since we're having a conversation now about the how can we help form? So let's talk about that form. What makes that tool so effective, and how do you see it growing over the next few years?

Stephanie Cooper 7:30
So that form was born out of covid because we, as you know, we had to pivot, and we went all virtual, and everything was just very different. And so that form was was born during that time, and we kept it because it was very it was very popular, it was very well used. We're able to respond to students right away. And again, a lot of their questions just it's a simple answer. It's not anything long and drawn out and complicated. Sometimes students just don't know. They don't know something that seems very simple to you or I, and so it's a great place for a student to start. And there are no dumb questions. There's no dumb questions. There's no stupid questions. If a student doesn't know, they don't know. And it's our job to serve the students and answer all questions. And so it's just a great place to start.

Dr. Sammie Scales 8:18
So once the student actually fill out that, how can I help form, how rapid of a response to the student kids usually, is it like 24 to 48 hours? How does that work?

Stephanie Cooper 8:28
I generally say within 48 hours, but my team's pretty good, so we're pretty on it. Respond as quickly as possible. I mean, oftentimes it's just within minutes. But, you know, sometimes people are out sick, so I always say this isn't like a crisis situation. Form. There are other avenues for that, but generally speaking, we're usually same day response, okay, that's excellent, same weekday. We do get weekends. Okay?

Dr. Sammie Scales 8:52
So equitable, equitable access, is a big focus for SSA. How do you and your team ensure that vulnerable or marginalized students can get help, the help that they need, especially when their challenges may not be a one size fits all type problem.

Stephanie Cooper 9:06
So through the years, UNLV is really we've gotten so much better at developing and building resources within each of the units and colleges and divisions and across the campus, right? But previously, we didn't have all these resources. You know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and so was more about who you knew, what person you knew, what what a person, what person a student knew in a department, or what friend they had that received help. Or maybe they would go back and tell the student it wasn't very equitable. You know, maybe your neighbor worked at UNLV, and so you knew that you could talk to that person for help. We have so many more resources now, and we're so much better at marketing those resources, but there's just so many. It can be very overwhelming. But the equity piece is we want to make sure that students know that there are resources. Is from so many different categories, academic resources, basic needs, resources, housing insecurity, all of those things. And again, we want to be able to curate the resolution for the student. So we don't want to have to go having them dig for an answer. We want them to come to us. We will understand what the situation is. We will talk to them, we will vet the situation, and we will say these are your top three, or whatever it is, answers for you, and we're going to get you connected here, here and here.

Dr. Sammie Scales 10:29
Wow, that is excellent. So you you pretty much doing all the work. Once they ask the question, you're pretty much doing the work for the student and letting them know exactly this is how this issue is going to be resolved. I

Stephanie Cooper 10:39
mean, if it weren't for students, I wouldn't have a job, and that's what I get paid for. And that's what I get paid for, and that's what my team gets paid for, is we like to handhold. And again, not everybody will agree with that philosophy, but we we like to hand hold. Well, I

Dr. Sammie Scales 10:51
wonder what took so long to bring this about. Because, you know, so many times students wish that there were, of course, when I was, you know, in my undergrad years, I wish there was a place where I could go to just get, you know, an answer for a particular question or a problem that I had. So yeah, I think that's excellent for students, and I think that students here on campus could actually use that information, because I don't know how that info has been marketed here on campus, but that's an excellent resource to have here on campus.

Stephanie Cooper 11:20
And what I will say is I've been doing this work for 18 years in some form or fashion. As of last year, I got to do this full time. This is what I do, full time now, not just part of my job, but this is very relational. So I have spent 18 years building relationships with people. And so when you call over to a certain department and you say, I have a student that needs help. When you have a relationship with that person, they're going to help you. They want to help you. They want to help your student. And vice versa, when somebody chats me and calls me and said, I have a student that needs help, I'm going to want to jump and help right away. And so, so much of this work that we do is relation, relational, and that's very important to me, is to build the relationships across campus.

Dr. Sammie Scales 12:04
That is so such an excellent statement to make. You know, not just you're building those relationships for yourself, but you're building it for the students. But when you reach out to these different departments, oh yeah, this is Stephanie College, I'm definitely going to do what I need to do to make sure that I get this to be taken care of, right? That's excellent relationships, collaborations, all for the betterment and making sure that the student is taken care of and can matriculate from one level to them exactly, exactly. That is it. So SSA is all about streamline, streamlining and centralizing support. You've been what's been your approach to breaking down silos and working across departments to make this happen, which we kind of sort of just touched on.

Stephanie Cooper 12:45
I love a good collab. I love a good collaboration. I am always looking to find ways to collaborate with people. And one of the things that we did just this summer is we did a pop up pantry in our one of our residence halls for the summer. So our summer residents were able to access basic needs, which included food items, academic supplies, hygiene items, cleaning items. It was a small, sort of pop up pantry, and it was right there in the residence halls, and they could come down and visit and get whatever they needed. We had it open on Wednesdays, and we had over 100 students visit to collect items from there.

Dr. Sammie Scales 13:23
Oh, wow, that is such a really good thing to do, because I've often heard students because my office is located over in the dorm, and I've heard students say, you know, I really would like to go to take what you need that's being held over in the Student Union, but I don't want to be seen carrying all this stuff across campus and people stereotyping me because I've got this food, and I'm like, Well, if it's stuff that you really need, you don't want to go get it. It's like, well, I just can't go with the stereotype of someone thinking that, you know, I don't have food, food insecure and carrying this across campus. So to actually do it in a dorm where they can just come out of their room, get what they need and walk back into the room, right? Oh, man, that's that's round, I

Stephanie Cooper 14:03
know. And if you really think about like our food pantry. So our food pantry is located all the way across campus, and students have to get there, and then they have to come back, and they're carrying a big bag, and a lot of them are embarrassed or ashamed, and we want to find ways to meet students where they are at so it's easier and more equitable.

Dr. Sammie Scales 14:27
That would be great, especially, and I not thought about until you just mentioned it, to actually have these food pantries in the dorm where students just come out get what they need, go back to their room. There's no one. There's no walk of shame. There's no anything about anyone making any type of

Stephanie Cooper 14:41
stereotypes. Absolutely, absolutely, it's great. So anybody out there who wants to collaborate with my office, yeah, absolutely.

Dr. Sammie Scales 14:49
How important is the philosophy of staying with the student throughout the process, when they actually submit a problem or question or whatever? How important is it to stay with them? The end of that.

Stephanie Cooper 15:00
So there's a couple of things that I do. I will always tell a student, when I work with a student and help them, I always tell them, I'm happy to be your point of contact during your entire academic journey. So if they ever or they're going along and they're going along, a year goes by and they're like, oh my gosh, I ran into this block wall again. I'm gonna call that lady that helped me before. And so I just always like them to know that they can come back to me. It's not a you know, it's not once you know, they can come back to me however many times they want, and they do, and they ask a lot of questions. And so that's really important for me to let them know I'm here for you during your entire academic journey. I want to be here to support you for your entire academic journey. I have a friend

Dr. Sammie Scales 15:43
with the title that you have in your position. Does any student like maybe think, Oh, well, Miss Stephanie is an executive director. I'm afraid to go talk to her. Have you faced any students that have that issue

Stephanie Cooper 15:57
sometimes? I mean, I don't know. I'm pretty easy to talk to, and I just try to be cool and hang out with the students and be one of them. And I think sometimes there are students that feel a little odd about titles, you know, and higher education loves their titles, but I just remind students, we're people just like them. We're not meant to walk this journey alone. We're supposed to ask for help, and I have a story. I've asked for help. I've needed help along the way. So I'm no different from anyone else, and we just, we have to just be people with each other,

Dr. Sammie Scales 16:30
yeah, you know? And I wanted to ask that question, you know? One, because I'm sure that there are students that feel like that, but two, to say, I often see you when there's events going on down there with the students, just like today. You was at the event with fraternity and sororities this morning. So yeah, that's an excellent thing. Are there any upcoming initiatives or digital tools or new strategies on the horizon that you're particularly excited about?

Stephanie Cooper 16:55
There are a couple of things in the works, nothing set in stone right now, so I'd be a little reluctant to talk about that, but we have made a lot of we have made a lot of programmatic changes within my hope and fostering scholars programs, which are great. And so we're starting the fall semester with a lot of changes in both of those programs, and we're getting great feedback right now. One of the things that I have implemented for our scholars programs that I oversee is an involvement piece and an involvement requirement. And so it's just one involvement requirement for the semester, but all the data shows that involvement leads to student success, and so we haven't had that before. And so I'm really, really proud to go into the fall semester and have our scholars really learn about involvement and get involved, and we're getting really great feedback on that so far. But there are other things on the horizon

Dr. Sammie Scales 17:47
that's great. How do you keep up with the amount of students that you're helping or serving? Is there a some type of stats that you're keeping?

Stephanie Cooper 17:56
We do. We do have data. So we see quite a lot of students through our basic needs program and also our food pantry, and then from our How can we help form and the students that I see through that we do track all of that data, and it's it's a lot. I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, but we're talking about 1000s of students, 1000s of contacts. So we may see students repeatedly, but 1000s, we are intersecting with 1000s of students every semester.

Dr. Sammie Scales 18:24
Wow. And out of those 1000s of students that you're seeing, there's one student in particular I'm sure that you're in contact with often your daughters attend.

Stephanie Cooper 18:35
My daughter, yes, she is a sophomore. It's her second year. She is a dance major in the College of Fine Arts. I am very proud of her. I am very excited for her. She has a lot of opportunities that I didn't have when I was her age, and she is really living her best life. She's very involved. She joined a sorority last year against my advice, but she joined a sorority last year, she is on the scarlet Lion Dance Team, which is attached to the UNLV marching band. So she performs at the football games with the band and at the lady rebels basketball games. And she has a lot of dance rehearsals in her dance program and performances. She also wants to minor in business, so we're looking into that. And she was just selected to go to Georgia, the country, not the state, as one of eight dance students to perform in that country in October. So

Dr. Sammie Scales 19:33
that is excellent. So, and you know, we talked about the importance of making connections, yeah, so I'm glad to be connected with you, because I would love to have your daughter on the podcast, talk about her major, talk about dance and what it's like to be a student here, and a student that's actually involved here on campus, and not just coming here, going to class and going home. So

Stephanie Cooper 19:53
yeah, she loves UNLV, and she's also commuter student. She doesn't live on campus, but she's very involved.

Dr. Sammie Scales 19:57
Okay, great, so you're gonna make on. Connection and getting us a guest here from dance to come over and talk to us. Okay, I love that. Great. So what does student advocacy mean to you on a human level, beyond the paperwork and the policies and those kind of things?

Stephanie Cooper 20:13
You know, I really believe in human rights, and I believe, again, that we were not meant to walk this journey alone as humans. And I mentioned earlier that higher education, it can be difficult to navigate, and so when a student comes across a problem, or they feel that they've been wronged, I think it's really important, more than anything else, for them to feel like their voice is heard. And so to listen to a student just to tell their story or air their grievance is like half the battle, because sometimes people just won't listen to them. It's true. And so if you can just show compassion and be kind, be empathetic, Be understanding. Students are so appreciative of that they just spending some time with a student who is struggling means the world. And we don't know, we really don't know what those long term impacts are when we spend time with a student, when we help a student, when we get a student connected, when we advocate for a student, we don't really know how that's changing the trajectory of their life when we never really will. So it's really important that we take the time and we do our jobs. If it's not for the students we don't have a job?

Dr. Sammie Scales 21:31
Yeah, absolutely, I 100% agree with you. That's one of the things that I'm really proud of with being over in housing. My office is in South complex, and I have an open door apology, and my door physically is actually open every day. And I have students that come in, especially, and I speak about last semester, there was three different times last semester that I had students come in and ask them if they could close the door. I'm sure you close it. And they sat on the chase lounge and just cried, just cried. And I just let her sat there just, you know, put a box of tissues next next to her. And once she was done, she wiped her eyes. And, you know, she wanted to talk. And I actually sat there and listened. And instead of saying, well, caps is over here, go over to caps. They'll take not caps, I'm sorry, over to Wellness Center, and they'll take care of you over there, I actually got up with the student because of the issue that she spoke about, I wanted to make sure that she was able to get the help that she needed. So I walked with her over to the Wellness Center and got her connected there with someone, and she got the help that she needed. I love that. And the second thing that happened over there, I literally found myself sitting on the sofa crying with the steward because of the issue that he had. He was at the end of his rope. He didn't know what else to do. He thought he had exhausted all means of trying to stay in school and trying to please his family, and it was just so much for him. And I found that just by talking to him, the weight of what he was going through, I could feel that myself, and I'm sitting there crying with the student, and after all of this was said and done, and I walked him over to the Wellness Center as well, and when I got back to the office, I thought to myself, I can't believe I was literally sitting here crying. I didn't expect to cry at work that day, but just sitting and listening and giving these students an outlet has meant a world to them over in South Klump Absolutely, they've come to my office many times and said, I'm so happy that you're over here and we can come and actually talk to you. Just at the beginning of this semester, this week, I've had students stop and say, I'm glad you're still over here. So just having someone physically there that they can talk to that's gonna listen and not judge them, it just means so much to our students

Stephanie Cooper 23:48
there. It really does. It really, truly does. It's literally can be life changing and life saving.

Dr. Sammie Scales 23:54
Yeah, so, and I see these two, two students now on campus, and they're happy and they're doing fine. And I usually ask them, How are you doing? And it's all, I'm doing good. And I say, No, how are you doing? And they'll stop and talk. And you know, of course, now they're doing doing great and progressing and doing well in their classes. And it's always at the end, I really thank you for letting me come to your office to talk to you. That just means so much to me. It should. Yeah, that. You know, I remember the times when I was in an undergrad and needed someone to talk to, and my own son was undergrad at Tuskegee University when he graduated there. And I will, I always say I want to treat students the way that I wish someone would treat my son. I've

Stephanie Cooper 24:36
said that so many times. Birds of a feather, yes, yeah. So

Dr. Sammie Scales 24:40
it's just so worth it to come here every day to see the students, to try to be an outlet for them and be an advocate for them. So I'm so appreciative of that. So working in student affairs, can you Student Affairs can be deeply emotional and rewarding. What keeps you grounded when these days get heavy, like what we're talking about?

Stephanie Cooper 25:00
Oh, that can be some heavy days. We had a heavy week last week. We had a couple things happen last week, very, very heavy. I think the thing that keeps me grounded are the success stories and the students that get so excited at the smallest things that you do for them. One of the things I love is when you get a thank you note from a student or a little card. I mean, I keep all of them, and it means so much to me that they thought enough of me and what I did for them, that they wanted to come back and write me a little note. I love that. And my favorite thing is when a student wants to do something for me or buy something for me, or take me to lunch, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You pay it forward. When you are at a point in your life, you pay it forward, and they do, and it's amazing. And so you're just changing their thought process and really embedding in them what it means to help people, and what advocacy means, and what being kind means, what taking time means and listening means, yes,

Dr. Sammie Scales 25:58
absolutely. I think that's one of the greatest thing that we can do for our students is actually to sit there and listen to them. Just listen. Yeah, absolutely. So let me ask you this. If money was not an issue at all, what would you like to see for your department?

Stephanie Cooper 26:13
Oh my gosh. Oh my goodness. Where do I start? Okay, first and foremost, I want to have a more centralized, brand new building for our food pantry and our basic needs program. We're marrying those programs, but logistically that's a little bit difficult right now. So if we had a building more centralized on campus where we could put food pantry basic needs, make that access to that easier and again, more equitable for our students and our staff too. Our staff are able to access our food pantry staff and faculty too. That is probably my number one priority. Priority number two would build. Would be to build or develop a bigger student lounge. My team and our scholar and student support office just sort of re modeled the office, if you will, and built a little student lounge for our students. It's open to any students. It is in our scholar office, so our scholars are in there the most, but it's open to any students. We've got some comfy couches and pillows and plants and fairy lights and an ice machine and a coffee maker and some tea and a refrigerator and water and snacks. And I would love to have more space where we can serve more students. That is

Dr. Sammie Scales 27:34
excellent. So if a student wants to come to your office to take advantage of some of these, where are you located? And how do they contact

Stephanie Cooper 27:40
you? Student Union, 309, and they can email basic needs@unlv.edu for office hours. But yeah, there's a cute little lounge in there where any students are welcome. So you're in the SU now, my office is in FDH, but my scholar and student support team is in the student union, and then my food pantry team is over in the food pantry across campus on University Drive. Oh,

Dr. Sammie Scales 28:04
wow, that is excellent to know. So we've got the question of, What would you like to see for your for your department, if money wasn't an issue? I usually say this thing, the same thing, similar, but I always say partner with a grocery store so that we can always have food, fresh food and vegetables and stuff like that for our students here on campus. But that was that's that would be an excellent start. So anytime you like to come back to the podcast, we would love to have you, but I'm definitely going to stay connected with you to have your daughter so we can schedule, I have my book here, and we can schedule time for her to come, because I would love to have her a guest as a guest as well, because this podcast is about the students making sure that they know what resources are available. But I want to bring students in also to sit in these seats so that they can actually give their stories and connect with other students on campus, and, you know, for the betterment of the campus and of the students

Stephanie Cooper 28:58
as well. So I love that. And actually, I do have a few ideas of some students have who have received some of our services that would be open and willing to talk about how that impacted

Dr. Sammie Scales 29:06
their Oh, I would love to have them. I will. So we're going to talk offline, and I would love to schedule that. That's awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you to give the email address once again for students,

Stephanie Cooper 29:17
yes, basic needs@unlv.edu

Dr. Sammie Scales 29:21
great again. My guest Stephanie Cooper. She is the executive director of office of student support and advocacy here at UNLV. Thank you so very much for coming to talk with us. Thank you. Thank you. And that's a wrap.

Dr. Renee Watson 29:36
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