Let's Talk UNLV

0:00:00
Alright, well welcome to another segment of Let's Talk UNRV. On KUNV you are with co-hosts Keith and Renee. Renee, how was your weekend?

0:00:14
So, I have a big highlight. I did the Top Gun stunt flying excursion out in Henderson. Where we go up in the air.

0:00:25
So you're taking this daredevilness up another notch. Oh, yeah, it was

0:00:28
Exhilarating and we did all these rolls and dives and dips. I wasn't able to keep it all down But it was an amazing amazing amazing experience and right here in Anderson You know not too far from the campus. And so that was my birthday treat to myself. What about you? Can you top that? Well, hold on. Did you get to actually... Yes! I was... fly the... Yes, I was driving the plane. Yes. They would tell me when to turn and I turned. They would tell me when to lift the nose up. I lifted the nose up. It was absolutely... And I got to wear the suit too. And I was called Viper. It was... It was... I saw the

0:01:10
photos, but the photos don't quite describe what you just did. Oh my goodness. I got to step it up. You know my birthday is coming up in June on Father's Day weekend so I have to ask your own father's day, my father's day baby. So you give me some ideas to step it up a notch for my upcoming birthday. But for me this weekend you know I spent, you know, the awards and the students back on site and the parents together and the teachers. So that's what I spent my weekend doing, going to his middle school, seventh grade award ceremony, and then the subsequent commencement for his school. And then this morning, my son just finished pre-K. So they had like a little ride, drive-by ceremony. So, you know, we're full of the festive celebratory spirit. And you know, it's just the timing is perfect to be able to come in today and talk about UNLV's spring commencement highlights. So we're pleased to have Dr. Vicki Rosser, who's the Faculty Senate Chair and Professor of Higher Education and also in the College of Educational Psychology and Higher Education. And Dr. Rosser plays a key role with the commencement ceremony itself. And then we also have Dr. Sam Fugazada, who is our registrar, who is probably one of the – probably has done probably the most heavy lifting in terms of the commencement planning. And then we have one of our recent graduates. Congratulations. We've got Mr. Will Kreitler on the line with us as well. So all welcome. And then maybe Dr. Rosser and Dr. Fugazato, if you could maybe just share briefly with our listeners what your respective roles are with commencement, just high level, and then we'll just get into the questions.

0:02:48
Oh, cool, thanks. Basically, my role with university commencement is to serve as a commencement committee chair. So I'm kind of the team lead for a cross-university team that's responsible for putting on the commencement ceremony. It's definitely not an individual effort. On my part, there are a lot of folks in any given year who put a lot of hours into making commencement happen. So I feel very privileged to work with such a really, really devoted group, you know, devoted to the university and very sort of volunteer-minded. But that's basically my role. We also, of course, do things like help prepare the commencement bulletin, and this time around we dealt with issuing, we worked with UNLV tickets to issue tickets for this spring's commencement ceremony. But that is my role with commencement in a nutshell.

0:03:35
Thank you, Sam. And Vicki, do you mind sharing your respective role in terms of commencement planning or

0:03:40
execution?

0:03:41
Well, to tell you the truth, I don't do a lot of planning, but the execution was critical, particularly when we had four different graduations and making sure we have marshal coverage. Now, I don't oversee the marshals. That's Bill Robinson who does that. But sometimes the faculty senate chair sits on the platform party, but I chose not to do that with these graduations because I felt extra hands and help were going to be needed down on the graduate level there to hand out water, etc. So I'm not a real planner. I'm told what to do, but I changed that role this time around because of the uniqueness.

0:04:32
So I'm just curious, when the decision was made that we were going to have an in-person spring commencement, you know, as those are going to be part of it, what came to your mind in light of COVID and in light of having a virtual ceremony that we had in the fall? What were some initial thoughts that came to your mind?

0:04:48
Well, for mine, I was thrilled for the students. I was very, very happy about it. I think they were patient, they are resilient, and they deserve their time. And I was one of those that the university is not going to make a decision to put people in jeopardy, and we all know that. And I have confidence in the leadership of this institution to see that through. And all the planning that was put in place, all the seating, everything that was done, it was great. I had no hesitations whatsoever. It was to serve the students.

0:05:29
And then Will, speaking of that, could you share from a student perspective, student graduate, like how you felt once the news came out that we were going to have an in-person commencement.

0:05:39
Yeah. Well, first off,

0:05:39
I just want to start with thanking Dr. Rosser and Sam for all the work that you put in to make this possible. But I think I speak for the rest of the students when I say that when we heard that a graduation ceremony was actually going to happen, I think we were all really excited, especially the students that didn't get to walk the previous year. Cause I know they were super let down by that. But just being able to get everybody out there and at Sam Boyd it was an awesome venue because there was sunshine, a lot of smiles, you know people had sunglasses and it was just a really good atmosphere and there was a lot of really good energy. While we were all able to stay safe and have plenty of distance at Sam Boyd. So it was really nice.

0:06:25
So we'll talk to us. I mean, had you contemplated how you would end the spring if there was not going to be an in-person commencement? Had you talked about that with your family and friends about how you would celebrate this momentous occasion, you know, even if the university did not provide an in-person celebration?

0:06:43
Yeah, I think without having a ceremony, I was gonna have a lot of family come out here and we were just gonna rent out some hotel rooms and just have a good dinner and a nice get-together but with the ceremony actually happening I still had family come out here and since it was limited to four guests I just picked four people that had really helped me on this journey. I picked my mom, my stepdad, sister, and my girlfriend and they were able to attend and even though I only had four guests

0:07:17
it was still just awesome to have people come out and watch me walk. And so this was like your second

0:07:24
graduation ceremony so how did this one pale in comparison to your first when you received your

0:07:29
bachelor's degree? So when I received my bachelor's degree it was at Thomas and Mac, a lot more people, it's an enclosed stadium environment. And with this one, for me it was special because I was a student athlete at UNLV during my undergrad. I played football and we had all of our home games at Sam Boyd Stadium. And the first time I stepped foot in Las Vegas, they took me on my recruiting visit and we went to Sam Boyd and that was the first time I had ever really seen anything UNLV. So to have it all come full circle and to have my graduation, my final thing that I'm going to do with UNLV be at Sam Boyd, it was really special to me and I actually preferred it over the Thomas and Mac just because it was a sentimental location to me. And that's great to hear.

0:08:25
And I know that even, you know, in my wide network of family members and graduates and in the work that I do, you know, many, many graduates did not have this in-person experience and they were still virtual. So, you know, once we heard the news officially that we were going to have in-person, I rubbed it in a little bit with some of my counterparts around the country. But, Sam, for you, I know that so what were some of your first reactions when the word came out that we were going to do in-person, recognizing that I suspect from a project management timeline that you were certainly behind schedule for normal commencement planning, and then also having to take into consideration the safety protocols that would need to be in place and venue and all those things. Could you just talk a little bit about sort of how you gather yourself to start to organize this commencement team. And then the second question would be to that is, could you talk to us a little bit about who

0:09:22
comprises that commencement team? Sure, happy to. My first reaction to when the announcement came out that we were going to have in-person commencement really was kind of excitement, nervousness, and anxiety followed after that because, you know, from a planning perspective, but I was very excited. I myself enjoy commencement, being there in the moment, so having an, as good a job as I probably did with virtual commencement in the fall, I do think that students and the community really prefer in-person graduation. So I was very excited to hear that the university was gonna move ahead with in-person commencement. When I put on my planner hat, yes, I was. You're right. We were several weeks behind in planning because if spring 21 were normal, we would have begun planning and Thomas and Max starting in like January. We actually started in mid to late March. So we were quite a bit behind in our planning. But you know, I was we had a decent playbook for in-person commencement. We had to adapt it heavily from Thomas and Max to Sam Boyd, a different venue, much bigger, different seating arrangements and really different everything, but that we had somewhat of a playbook to start with. In terms of protocols, we had to, you know, submit a plan to the state originally. And then when authority for event planning or event approval went to the county, we had to submit to the county. I don't remember all the steps off the top of my head, but we planned around that. We had to map out the number of seats we could have on the field with X amount of social distancing between the seats and how many guests we could have in the stands. Sam Boyd has, I think, something like 35,000 seats normally. We had, I think, space for 5,100 guests, so it was cut back significantly. There was lots to be worked out. We had to think about how we're going to handle people who aren't able to stand the heat. So we had to order a bunch of water, we had to advise people to wear sunscreen, sunglasses, all that good stuff. There was just a lot to be thought about that we hadn't had a plan for originally if we were going to be a Thomas and Mac. But I was really excited as the anxiety and the excitement were kind of concurrent emotions that I was living through a good portion of the spring term as we were looking

0:11:45
towards commencement, I'd say. Was this your second planning for a commencement of any kind at UNLV or how many other commencement? Not many, you're right. I

0:11:52
mean, so there was December 2020, May 2020 did not, there was no, there was only like there was a video project that was put together but the only other in-person commencement I had a hand on was December 2019 because I did not come to the University until August of 2019. Yeah, it's how it ordered itself. It was really a learning experience for me, I mean to sound selfish, but there was a lot of things that with only one commencement under my belt back in December of 2019, I didn't have a lot of memory of how things need to be. So I learned a lot on the fly this time around.

0:12:26
And then Sam, could you also speak to who comprises the commencement team in terms of not individual people, but more so maybe it's sort of what's the representation like, you know, certain faculty type or administrators, non-UNLV stakeholders or employees, and maybe students if that's part of the commencement team?

0:12:47
Yeah, good question. I forgot that part. So obviously, you know, my office is represented on the committee. We have folks from the President's Office. We have someone from the Provost's Office, at least one person from the Provost's Office. Then we have a number of folks from really the communications team for the communications and marketing for the university. And then we have from, well, as Dr. Rosser alluded, Bill Robinson is kind of, he calls himself the Lord Commander of Faculty Marshals, essentially, I guess, our faculty representative. And then it's about 20 people, so I'm sure I'm forgetting folks. And if I didn't say it, that's the several folks from Thomas and Mac. We had about five of them participate this time because we needed the additional coordination to move to Sam Boyd Stadium. And so I have a question for you, Sam,

0:13:40
about how did you control the wind? Because I know that was a concern about you know, how that was going to all pan out. And then, you know, Vicki, if you could just talk about what it means to faculty. I mean, you work with these students, you know, you've been on their journey. You know, these are master's level students, doctoral students, undergraduate students. I mean, you know, just as a faculty member, I know you were there to execute, but I'm sure you had to take it in about what does this mean to see your students walk this stage and to, you know, now enter into this next, you know, part of their life. So, Sam, let's talk about the wind, and then, Vicky,

0:14:15
if you could talk about what it meant for faculty. Well, yeah, in terms of weather, we went out to the National Weather Service for extended forecast, and knock on wood, things held out. The wind, you know, there isn't really much you can do about the heat or the wind. Wind was actually more of a concern because it can mess with your audio. But knock on wood, it worked out. We don't, you know, obviously, when you do an outdoor commencement, you don't really have much opportunity for a plan B unless you want to reschedule entirely. So we did not have Mother Nature on

0:14:54
the commencement committee. I wish we could have her. I thought you were going to say you

0:15:01
had a storm from the X-Men coming. That's

0:15:09
her name, Storm, right? Or our mother-father Z-Time, which you needed to because I'm sure you had to have a time where you'd say we need to abort really the few days before I think is the latest we had, things were looking good so we were able to proceed. We would have had to really do some pivoting to use the overrated word of the past year and a half if we, you know, the forecast called for really severe weather but luckily that didn't happen.

0:15:35
And Vicki, the faculty, I mean as faculty, how did you take in this moment?

0:15:41
Well, I have to say, you know, the faculty were absolutely thrilled for their students. And, you know, and that's one of the nice things about marshaling is that you can chat with students, you know, in their seats. We were handing out bottles of water, right, so we'd go along and we'd give some students a hug, you know, our particular students. And then I know that wasn't social distancing, but we figured, you know, what the heck. And it was just so rewarding to watch them cross the stage, especially the first commencement that Thursday morning. It was, a lot of us were high-fiving and belly-bumping because it brought a tear to our eyes to see everybody come back and give us some sense of normalcy, not just for us, but for our students, and for the state of Nevada, too. It was so rewarding. was the Friday night ceremony when over 1,000 students from the 2020 year came back to walk across that stage. That was stunning to me, that they knew this was important to them and they came back and they walked that stage and heard their name called. And I think that was the most touching because they were gone for a while. And to have them do that was, I'm telling you, it was really touching. And the coolest thing is when the fireworks went off Friday night, you looked in the sea of students and they all had their cell phones in the air.

0:17:30
We were graphing the fireworks.

0:17:33
It was cool. It was so rewarding and it was just fun. I'm grateful what the students did and for being there. Faculty don't often get this credit, but we truly care about our students.

0:17:57
Graduation is one of the most rewarding moments for a faculty member, bar none, when we see our students cross the stage.

0:18:05
And then, Will, maybe you could share similarly what were some of the stories that sort of you and your graduating class shared just as the commencement date was approaching and maybe during the commencement?

0:18:20
Well, for the whole year we were doing so much virtual classes, virtual meetups. A lot of my circle within the school was fellow graduate assistants. And so we had all kind of been through the same gauntlet throughout the year of dealing with all these hurdles. And I just know that when we got to graduation, we didn't really know what to expect. We hadn't all been in person for so long. And it was just awesome seeing so many familiar faces. And for all of us, it was that first time being back in person, giving hugs to each other, congratulating, because we had all been in these classes for a couple of years now. And we were no longer able to be with each other and meet up with each other. And so it was just super special just having one last get-together to celebrate the accomplishments that we had all had despite going through the pandemic.

0:19:27
And it's interesting that you say that because I was going to ask you, like, how long did it take to get through that sort of that awkward initial greeting where you see someone in COVID, right, in the pandemic, and you do that, you reach for the hand? Do you realize, oh, I shouldn't be doing it? Do you do the elbow or the knuckle? Do you just say, forget it, let's just hug? Yeah, you're exactly

0:19:44
right. It is. You know, you're just not sure how to approach it at first. But then I think once you're in that kind of moment, and you're filled with those emotions, I think that that physical nature just kind of kind of takes over. And you're just like, we've been through so much at this point. And you just naturally, you just grab on, you hug that person. And luckily, I think most of us were vaccinated, people I talked to. So that was a good thing. I know I was vaccinated.

0:20:13
And I think that took a lot of the stress off.

0:20:16
And then Sam, I want to transition back to you and ask you, I know I do a lot of event planning for different organizations. And I know as an event planner, until it starts, you're anxious and you're looking for certain indicators. Were there certain things that made you really anxious leading up to the actual start of the commencement?

0:20:36
Well, what didn't make me anxious at the start of commencement? There were a few. Well, the weather was one of them, which we alluded to. But luckily, that held out. I think ticketing was was tough just because we hadn't done it for commencement before. And I was always worried like, oh, did somebody miss an email or what's gonna happen the day of if someone loses their ticket and all that good stuff. But those were the big things. I mean, a lot of, I mean, not that I pass the buck, but again, I'm very thankful that we have a lot of good volunteer minded colleagues in the commencement committee. I always felt like a lot of the elements of the ceremony are very capable, experienced hands. Not that I ignored any of these they presented, but I would say weather and ticketing were kind of my biggest sources of anxiety going into the ceremony. And once we were there, I think after we got the students kind of marched in, processed in, and the ceremony was underway, I'm like, okay, I think we got this. And lo and behold, it turned out, after all four ceremonies, to be a really good experience for everyone, I think.

0:21:50
Yeah, that's the use of when I exhale. It's like once the hardest part is starting. Once it starts, you can just sort of exhale and relax a little bit.

0:21:58
And so I just have one more question. I have one additional thing I'd like to bring up. Yeah. I attended four graduation parties that weekend where I was invited to student's houses. At all four of those graduation parties, the parents walked up to me and thanked me and said, thank you, thank you, thank you for having graduation in person. I'll tell you, that was a stunning moment for me, too. That really made me gulp that, you know, it's bigger than just UNLV, but in the students it's the parents, too. So last two questions.

0:22:38
We want to first find out, you know, Will, what's next in store for you? You've reached this milestone, so let us know that. And then, you know, Sam and Vicki, is there any chance that this might be the permanent place for graduation going forward. You heard what Will said, how it made a significant impression on him. Any thoughts there about will future commencements be held at Sam Boyd?

0:23:02
So for me, right now I'm planning on entering more so the business world. I got my undergrad in business management and I spent a lot of time within the athletic department. I thought that that's where I was going to go so that's why I pursued a master's degree in higher education. But right now I'm looking for a job. I plan on staying in Vegas. I love the community. My past six years here at UNLV just helped me grow a passion for this place and so I plan on staying here. And anybody who's

0:23:34
listening to the podcast and knows of work or open jobs, feel free to reach out to me. Well, I guess I'll dive in. In my understanding, the university hasn't made a decision on whether we would use Sam Boyd Stadium for future commencements. So I don't really have anything to add in that regard. Yeah, I don't have any connections at that level either in that decision-making level. I will say one of the challenges was the heat, particularly Thursday morning. It was a heavy lift to make sure students and everybody had water in their hands. So that was probably the biggest challenge. Yeah, I think I looked at my phone, I think we had two ceremonies on Friday, the day with two ceremonies. I ended up walking 10 miles that day handing out water and kind of running around the ceremony. So I think that's a general risk for outdoor commencement ceremonies is at least in the springtime is heat. So and weather in general.

0:24:39
I know I know that in some of my circles, the questions were inquiring about maybe Allegiant Stadium as a possible commencement site.

0:24:48
Nice.

0:24:49
We know there's costs and dollar signs. You know, you got to be able to make it rain to get over there.

0:24:54
We'll keep our fingers crossed.

0:24:57
Well, thank you all for joining us and thank you for sharing from your perspectives in terms of all that it took to plan and execute a successful commencement ceremony in light of sort of pivoting out of the pandemic. And then Will, certainly thank you for sharing the experience that it would have meant to you and your family and your fellow graduates to be able to have an in-person commencement. Renee, what were some of your takeaways from today's segment?

0:25:25
Well, I just think about what Will said about how students have been through this gauntlet, you know, that's so descriptive about how this past year has been and for it to end this way. I'm also big on traditions and this is the highest tradition that you can have in a university setting. And just so pleased that it came together. I was one of those ones that said, uh-oh, I don't know about this one. But again, like Dr. Rosser said, the university is not gonna do anything to put students, faculty, staff, and or guests in jeopardy. And again, this is another sign of UNLV caring and doing the right thing and taking some risk where it counts.

0:26:04
And I agree with the latter part with, you know, taking that risk. And I know it wasn't an easy decision that the university came to in order to move forward. And I know the sort of the stress that it may have created for Sam and team to have to figure out, you know, how do we do this and do it safely within this condensed planning period. But, you know, as a parent, I know that, you know, I go to a lot of commencements for my family members and for the students that we support through our various programs. And so just having an in-person commencement, as you say, Renee, that tradition and just being able to greet and see people in person is, you know, it's unbelievable. And I felt an extremely sense of pride, you know, being at UNLV and to be a part of that experience. And I'm just glad we were able to pull it off successfully. And I know that Sam and others, even myself, I was watching the positivity rate numbers and watching the vaccination numbers and just like, yeah, we got to keep, just biting my fingers, until the day came to actually execute the commencement, just hoping that everything broke in our favor to allow us to do this, this important, have this important experience. I think as Dr. Roster said, just being able to get back to some sense of normalcy, closing out the spring semester and really setting the tone for going into the summer and our plan to return fully for the fall. So I think that was a great culminating event in all those regards.

0:27:34
What they say, Rebels make it happen. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of KUNV Let's Talk UNLV. For my co-host Keith, I'm Renee. Tune in next week, Wednesday at 12, on KUNV 91.5 Jazz and More. Tune in next week, Wednesday at 12, on KUNV 91.5 Jazz and More. That's a wrap.

Transcribed with Cockatoo