Let's Talk UNLV

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Alright, well welcome to another segment of Let's Talk UNRV on KUNRV. You with co-host Keith and Renee. Renee, how was your weekend?

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Very very exciting. I was in the DC area. I managed to get through the airport, throughout the city with no harm, no foul. And I had a chance to spend time with my partner in Delaware and Pennsylvania as well as New Jersey.

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So now I'm back at home and ready for this week and ready for this segment. All right. Well, you know, I didn't do much. I had a disappointing football experience. My team, the team I was rooting for didn't win. So I quickly turned to cleaning out my drawers in my office and garage work. So for the weekend was all right other than that. But, you know, Renee, I'm excited about this topic today. We'll be talking about the hate uncycle conversations, and we have a few guests with us. We have Dr. Roberta Sabath, who's the Religious Studies Coordinator for Campus and Community Partnerships, a visiting assistant professor from the English department. We also have Jose Melendrez, who is the Executive Director for the School of Public Health Office of Community Partnership, and Chair of the Nevada Minority Health and Equity Coalition. And we also have Dr. Margaret Camp, who is the Director of the Jean Nites Care Center. And lastly, we have Romeo Jackson, who is the Assistant Director for Social Justice, Student Diversity, and Social Justice. Guests, welcome to the show.

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Hi, good to be here.

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Welcome.

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And I guess what we'll do, we'll just sort of start in order and we'll probably start with Dr. Sabbath, if you could maybe share a little bit about yourself and your area and your topic that you're focused on for the Hate Uncycled conversation and then we'll do the same with the rest of the guests.

0:01:52
Oh, thank you. It's delightful to be here and I'm honored to have participated in this set of conversations which started out October 19th, I believe it was, or around then, 2019, when we had that racist episode that pretty much closed down our campus. And it became clear that a conversation about racism, the effects on our marginalized and threatened communities was very timely. And as it's turned out, unfortunately, the topic has even become more compelling. So the provost office, Chris, he just said, go with it, Roberta. Get together the people in our campus that you think are the movers and the shakers. What I found out is that our campus rolled up its sleeve not only with the pandemic, but long before the pandemic to do everything it could in so many different ways to fight racism and to protect our communities and help them to grow. And whether it's the law school, the medical school, our College of Public Health, our College of Criminal Justice, our amazing student

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diversity and social justice, our women, I could go on and on, you can tell. But I became inspired by our campus faculty administrators and most of all our Jose, could you share the same? Sure. So Jose Melendez, as I already said, I'm in the Public Health, run the partnership office and I chair the Nevada Minority Health and Equity Coalition and I think, you know, the same. I think it's exciting. The challenges aren't new, racial injustice to inequity. In my area of public health, I think the Obviously, with this pandemic that we're all currently living through has brought to the forefront is just how bad those inequities are and exist for people of color and different diverse inequity populations and the impact from the COVID-19. And so I'm very proud to say that I'm part of the university and part of a school of public health that has been thrust into the front line, working with all kinds of different departments, you know, the medical school, nursing, all the other health sciences areas that have been kind of put on the front lines on addressing the pandemic and being a critical component in our community of Nevada to address those issues, bring light to those issues, and be very proactive about bringing real initiatives that are having a direct impact on our community partners and engaging the university on multiple levels in response to the pandemic. And that I hope that what we're learning from this process are things that we were doing before, but maybe that we can improve them in terms of how we engage our community partners with the university when it comes to addressing public health initiatives from a social justice and racial justice lens.

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All right, Dr. Camp, could you share a few words about yourself and then followed by Romeo Jackson. Sure, absolutely.

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Margaret Campy, I am the director of the Jean Nitech Care Center. We recently underwent a name change, so we are at CARE stands for Campus Antiviolence Advocacy Resources and Empowerment. And so I am here because you really can't talk about anti-violence work without also talking about racism, right? Gender gender and race are not...are inextricably linked and so are the, you know, the discrimination that comes with those. So, our office operates from an anti-oppression framework and so I'm really excited to talk about the different ways that we can start addressing anti-violence in the wake of the the pandemic, but also, you know, more broadly in an intersectional manner, because our office and I really, really believe that we really can't talk about violence in silos in terms

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of identity.

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It doesn't just affect women. It doesn't just affect minorities, right? And the experiences and the lived experience of violence, you know, systemic racism and other types of discrimination.

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And hi, I'm Romeo Jackson. My pronouns are they and them. I am Assistant Director for Social Justice. And I'm excited to kind of think through the way that coronavirus has really kind of brought to light or re-centered educational inequities that we know are experienced by students of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, and really being conversation and linking that to the founding of post-secondary education and to its current manifestation. You know, coronavirus and racism are often talked about as twin pandemics, which I think is accurate because for some of us, we're always at a pandemic level of stress, as I'm sure Jose from a public health standpoint could speak to very well. So excited to be in the conversation and speak to the ways that student diversity and social justice kind of speaks to the center, the most marginalized of students to impact change, not only for them in their lives,

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but also at the institution.

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Well, thank you. We are really in the company of the heavy hitters here. So thank you so much for your contribution and your work thus far. So my question really is, do you find that these conversations become easier or present a new opportunity because of COVID? Are people's sense and awareness of what's happening even heightened in this moment, or do you find the same challenges exist in having these very tough conversations. And then my second question would be, what's different about this time? Dr. Sabbath, you mentioned that this was a pickup from last fall. So what's different and what can we expect in this four-part conversation that we did not see last time?

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First of all, this is now virtual. If you just put in hate uncycled into the search engine on our UNLV homepage, you'll bring up the list of four events. And because it's such a comprehensive way, it's a multi-lens way to look at how the pandemic and racism is affecting so many dimensions, whether it's health, whether it's policing, whether it's security, whether it's First Amendment rights, indigenous land rights, whether it's redlining in West Las Vegas or the multiple services that our campus is providing, Asian-Americans have been especially impacted. And interestingly, even before COVID hit, we were seeing all of these dynamics at work, but all of us who've been in the classroom know you have teaching moments, and this is a teaching moment. And that's why I get so excited about our campus. It is obviously one of the most diverse campuses on the country. And we are taking a leadership role in just how you make diversity work, not as something to that has to be weathered, but as a way to make our society richer, more productive, and on the way, more equitable and diverse. I hope that answers your question. But you can generally get carried away.

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Yes, your passion is evident. But, yeah, so to my question, though, do you find that because of COVID and because of the collaboration that has existed on campus to fight this terrible pandemic, that it provides a place, a platform to talk about these issues that wasn't maybe presented in the past? I think there's an urgency and with the

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urgency comes the motivation to build allies and this is something that Anti-Defamation League which is a co-sponsor along with the Las Vegas Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada for this series really emphasizes. I think we can no longer, we no longer have the luxury to be cynical or to say well I'll let somebody else get to work. Each of us owes it to ourselves, our families, our communities to take action. And when it has to do with our grandfather or a baby or a threatened uncle or favorite aunt, a mother, the need to take action and the need to take action becomes more urgent. And I think the allied building, just even as I was organizing different, each of these four conversations, even the participants didn't all know each other and began talking to each other. And if we on our campus learn about the multifaceted services we have, we are enhancing this awareness, the ability to educate, the ability to prevent, the ability to respond effectively, and the ability to heal and to build. And I think also another important piece is to share

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our gratitude with people who may have not had an understanding of just how much

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their work is appreciated. All of this is of the good energy and allyship, I believe. All right. This question is for Dr. Camp. Dr. Camp, could you share how has the pandemic impacted those at risk for experience interpersonal violence? Yeah, absolutely. So we know that nationally we've seen an exacerbation of interpersonal violence in tandem with the pandemic. And while the pandemic doesn't in and of itself cause violence, the needed public health measures, social distancing and quarantining have caused increased isolation and economic impacts and losses have increased as well, which increases financial stress or burden for many families. So, again, these stressors don't cause interpersonal violence, but rather may exacerbate or escalate And so, what we've seen nationally and with our own student population, you know, are increasing levels of lethality, frequency and intensity of violence. And so, then there's this double bind that those experiencing interpersonal violence are faced with. So, say for example, somebody wants to leave, go to a shelter, escape a violent relationship. As hard as that is to achieve without the pandemic. Now folks have to weigh yet another safety hazard, right? Like what will be more dangerous, a shelter and community living during a pandemic or staying with an abusive partner? Likewise, we've seen an uptick in family violence and that's particularly important for us at UNLV to consider the effects of family violence for our students at this time. We've got students whose living situations have changed abruptly, um, sometimes forcing them to move back in with parents, siblings, or others that may create a toxic home environment. And with college students, sometimes they fall between the cracks in terms of resources. They've aged out of child protective services, but wouldn't qualify for some other services based on their situation. And so, it's really a tough situation right now with the pandemic. And what does that have to do with racism, right? Like, why am I here talking about racism? Well, even without the pandemic, those who occupied these marginalized identity characteristics are also those who are most at risk for experiencing interpersonal violence. And let me be clear, because sometimes this gets conflated, it's not one's race or identity that's causal in this increased risk, right? It's the individual, community, and structural social melu that create conditions which disproportionately negatively affect marginalized populations. And so when we cue in the pandemic, which is also disproportionately affecting black and brown folks, and we've got this cumulative multiplicative effect, it's complex and there may be some resources available, but many of those resources are stretched thin and some of them, a lot of them, have been historically problematic or harmful for minority populations. And so, all of this adds up to these layered levels of stress, creating even more barriers for safety for both violence, but also from COVID-19 for both marginalized groups. And so, that's what I'm seeing with relationship to the pandemic, violence, and the intersections of violence and marginalization.

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So the same question applies to Romeo. What are you seeing coming out of the Student Diversity and Social Justice Office, and what are you hoping to gain through this conversation and experience?

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Yeah, you know, I think some of the discourse when the pandemic really came into the public imagination was that the coronavirus was a great equalizer. I think now that has not bared out to be true, right? We know that black people and native people are dying at much higher rates of coronavirus. Early reports of the vaccine distribution show that black, brown and poor communities are not receiving the vaccine at the same rate or being vaccinated. So I think we have to start there, right? To say that, you know, the great equalizer never exists, right, in a country where racism is still embedded. We then bring that into the context of higher education and this online learning environment. Do our students have access to fast and reliable internet? Do they have access to quiet workspaces? Many of our students are still working, right, jobs and taking care of families. We're saying that queer and trans students have had to go home and return back into the closet just to have somewhere to sleep that is unsafe. And so it has really, I think, brought into focus some of those inequities that we already know exist in higher education. And how do we still not only deliver course content in the best way, but really fulfill the mission of student affairs and co-curricular activities to say, we're still here to develop you as a person. We still care about your leadership development. We want to give you access to understand the world around you in this stressful environment. And so it really requires us to shift, to think about how we deliver programs, how we deliver services, and how do we respond to this increased stress that Maggie just mentioned around the pandemic coursework, as well as other factors that we may not even know of. And so I think the hope in this conversation is that we can peel back some of these experiences that may not be as visible when we talk about the coronavirus and also complicate what that means. For example, I hear from disabled students all the time that this style of learning is actually preferred and ideal. And so how do we maintain some of those lessons we've learned around access and education as we hopefully emerge from the pandemic sooner rather than later?

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And that's great. And this question is for Jose. Could you share just sort of picking up on what Romeo shared concerning some of these imbalances and how it's been exasperated with the pandemic rather than sort of an equalizer. Could you talk a little bit about your observations concerning like the vaccinations and where there may be differences between access and getting the vaccination among black and brown populations?

0:17:30
Right, I mean, to all of the presenters, panelists points, you know, everything we're talking about is not new. Racial injustice, the inequity, the homelessness, all the issues, you know, because the pandemic hit all of those other issues we were dealing with didn't just all of a sudden disappear, right? They've only come to the forefront even more so, and if somebody's dealing with all those other areas, then their world just got very complicated. And so, the reality at UNLV, I think, to Renee's question earlier, is that, you know, these issues have been discussed, they've been brought forward. I think what's different this time around is that, unfortunately, the pandemic has brought it to the forefront of just how incredible the negative impact of those inequities that are around that do exist and how they impact those communities. The George Floyd incident, the racial injustice that exists, has put everything on the front And really, I think it's really as an institution of higher education, as a community, as a nation, what we're seeing happening is really challenging us and forcing us to ask those very... Somebody said earlier, right, the difficult conversations that need to be had, because, you know, we're still dealing with a lot of the same issues. So, my question or my... I guess my challenge would be, how do we, as an institution, really lead and begin to put real change in place that is sustainable and that works for everybody, you know, and Keith, to your point about the vaccination, you know, there's a history there, obviously, as we know, there's a history there of why the Black community might not want to receive the vaccination or other communities of color and their experiences with the public health system or with the medical system. And so, how do we overcome that? How do we put through real lasting change? And I know, Romeo, and the work they're doing, the Jane Etich Women's Center, the work they're doing, that those programs and those things are in place. I think what we have to challenge ourselves is as an institution, we have a new president, the previous president, Dr. Marta Miana. I think there's a real opportunity to put real change, real long-term sustainability plans in place that allow us as an institution, in higher ed, an urban-based institution, to be a real leader and a real partner to all of those communities in Nevada to make sure that we can bring about the change. And you know my hope quickly is that what are we going to learn from the impact of the pandemic? You know, how do we really serve those communities and make sure that their voices are at the table, that that we're putting diversity and equity and inclusion initiatives up front at the very beginning and not as an afterthought when it comes to who's getting the vaccinations, who's going to have access to the doctors. I mean, you know, so those are all real challenges that we'll continue to face. But, you know, again, my point is what are we going to learn and from what we learn, how do we really implement real change and long-term sustainable change that really brings everybody some kind of equity and sustainable process that helps our communities and not continues to hinder our communities. So I'm going to go out

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you know on the limb just put it out there I think one of the things I'm looking forward to in this conversation is the role that senior cabinet leadership will play. We know that UNLV has gone through several iterations of presidents and provosts and so those positions now have been finalized. We know that Dr. Whitfield will be unveiling his vision. And so I'm curious from Dr. Sabbath, having now worked directly with the provost office and having those earnest conversations, what do you forecast will be their contribution as well as the commitment to sustain this work? Because we know that COVID-19 will, you know, leave the scene eventually. But at the same token, as Jose pointed out, these are not new issues. And I do think that these issues present itself differently at MSI. I certainly know that in housing, you know, someone who has housing in their portfolio, I made the assumption that students had somewhere to go. I made the assumption that students would be able to find, you know, food resources and that food insecurity wouldn't be as high. And so all of those things definitely presented themselves differently as this being the first, or really the second MSI that I've worked at, but not at this level. And so, again, Dr. Sabath, I'm just curious to know from your conversations, where is senior cabinet leadership on this topic and the commitment that is behind this work for long term.

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I think one of the things the provost office in support of Dr. Whitfield, our president, is to make the issues visible to everyone and to reinforce the programming that we have. Just what you've done, Renee, that I've seen with resident life, the responses to that, getting back, circling back to that October 19th event, just the numerous services, whether it's emergency services for food or shelter, if something happens, the communication, lines of communication between law enforcement and the students on the ground and the faculty across campus. And I think the bridge between the faculty side and the student side of our campus needs to be developed. We need to bring the faculty student side together more closely. And lastly, I will say, we are all aware of this is our state legislative season. And I think we all behoove ourselves to support not only our provost, our president, but also to support our regents when they make those key submissions and budget and make those arguments to our state legislatures. So I think by showcasing already what UNLV is doing, a community is stronger if its universities are strong. And our university is getting stronger every day, developing these very specific services that help our families, our campus, our city. I've learned things about our state. Maggie was telling me how the Women's Center here is helping the programs north, Romeo the same, and our country. We have a Brett Birdsong, for example, on the transition team with the Biden administration. So we're embedded locally, nationally, and this is where the trajectory and the funding will help us continue our good work. And thank you, Renee, so much, and Keith for giving us this opportunity to share our excitement and the contribution our campus makes to this community.

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Well, we're going to get you out of here on this last question. Kind of give us a sketch of what the four, you know, robust conversations look like, maybe the topics and maybe some of the presenters.

0:24:20
Oh, that would be great. So the very first conversation is on February 3rd. All the conversations that are at one o'clock, they're online, they're virtual, they're going to be the YouTube platform. All you have to do is put it, hey, uncycle in the search box at UNLV. This one will discuss health, COVID-19, community engagement and social justice. And again, just as Jose was talking about, this will be the voices of the vulnerable populations, how the vaccine and health issues are affecting those communities. Then on February 17th, we have our campus luminaries. Maggie will be there. Romeo will be there. Dr. Whitfield, Keith Whitfield will be there, both as president and as a researcher on African American men. We will have Mark Padumpot, representing the Asian American community. They also have faced challenges since the pandemic for obvious reasons. And we'll have Joshua Padilla, the head of our CSUN, our student body, talking about the wonderful things that programming that CSUN has done. Then in the third, that's March 3rd, all of these are Wednesdays at one o'clock. Again, YouTube, again, we will have hosting Nagai Pindle who is in the law school and works with the Redlining Project in West Las Vegas. Sebastian Ross, a law student who will be speaking to their work that they've been doing for decades. Sebastian most recently. Also Brett Birdsong, as I mentioned, working with the Biden transition team, professor of law, who's been working on indigenous issues. Ryan Boone, who's head of the native, former president of the Native Student Association to talk about land rights and also representation of the indigenous population on our campus. And last and very compelling, we have Dr. William Sousa, who's the Dean of the College of Criminal Justice. And we have Brittany Watkins, a local attorney, alumna of the Criminal Justice and the Law School to talk about social justice and police reform. Frank Rudy Cooper, he and Adi Rolnick are doing just a new program on race, gender, and police reforming in the law school. We'll have Adam Garcia, the head, vice president of our security here in the Southern Nevada University campuses, all speaking to police reform, as well as Dr. Harold, who, when I spoke to her, she had already been consulting at the federal level just after those January 6th episodes. So a lot of heavy hitters for which we are all very grateful.

0:27:24
Yes, that sounds incredible. Just hearing that all-star lineup, this is going to be a tremendous series that's going to be hosted by UNIV. Renee, my key takeaway, you know, there were so many positive things shared. I can't wait for this series to kick off. Can't wait to join, listen in, and hear some of the outcomes and recommendations that will be birthed through these conversations. And one of the things that really resonated with me across the different guests today was, you know, with the pandemic, it just exacerbated sort of these disparities that we all knew existed in these different distinct areas. And sort of the common thread is what have we learned through this pandemic? And then how do we take what we've learned to inform and how we create sustainable, real change in terms of how we deliver programming and increase or decrease these different equity access across these different domains? What about you, Stephanie?

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I agree, and I'm glad that we're going to continue the conversation in a part two with some of the additional guests that are part of this fantastic lineup. And what I'm really hoping to learn is specifically how will we meet these challenges for an MSI? I have a hunch that we are different than our colleagues that work at predominantly white institutions, specifically how does this function at MSI? So I look forward to the second part, which we talk with our other guest from Head on Cycle. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of KUNV Let's Talk UNLV. I'm my co-host Keith. I'm Renee. Tune in next week, Wednesday at 12, on KUNV 91.5 Jazz and More. That's a wrap. That's a wrap.

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you

Transcribed with Cockatoo