Let's Talk UNLV

0:00:00
Alright, welcome to another segment of Let's Talk UNLV. You're on KUNV with co-host Keith and Renee. Renee, my weekend has been insane. You know, the kids going back to school and school shopping and you know, you waiting for the school to let you know, you know, we got a kindergarten. So it's a, not a first, but it's been a while, right? So, you know, when you get to kindergarten, you got to figure out what school they're going to go to now. And, you know, you're on the list for like five schools. It's a lot of system and you don't hear back until like sometimes the week of school. And we just heard back from a school. We had made one decision that we had another message on a new school. So we just did a whole switcheroo and it's just been crazy standing in lines getting shirts for school to uniforms and

0:00:55
My head is frazzled. Well, I can attest the lines are long. I went to the barber shop And my barber's like I'm sorry I'm back I'm just booked back-to-back We have all these kids coming in for their first day of school. And then, like you said, the lines and the stores to get supplies, to get food, everything. But it's really a good time, though, because I think it shows that despite this pandemic, there is some sense of normalcy. And that's why I'm really excited about today's topic, because part of that normalcy is our student leadership, right, and what they're going to bring to the table as we reopen in the fall.

0:01:39
Yeah, so you know, speaking of that, I'm excited to have two guests today. We have Karen Yap, and then we have Abe Lugo, who are our newly elected officers with CSUN. If you two could just introduce yourselves and just maybe share quickly what positions you're in,

0:01:53
and then we can go from there. Yeah, thank you for having us. My name is Karen Yap. I'm currently the CSUN Student Body President, and CSUN is our student government and I'm just really excited to be here.

0:02:05
And I am Abe Lugo. I am the student body vice president, which I'm very, very excited about because we're just starting to all get set up and really get to work. And I'm also very excited. Thank you for having us.

0:02:20
of the, I guess, enormity of your positions. I mean, let's talk about your exec board, that size, maybe the size of your budget, the amount of time it takes for you all to go through training, to prep you for these roles. Just kind of give us an idea to the scope of the work and the types of decisions that you have influence in making for the campus and for the student body. Yeah, definitely.

0:02:45
I don't think I even fully realized the enormity of this position until I actually put in it. So my term started on May 1st of this past year. So I've been in this position for about three, four months, I believe. So it's been amazing. And basically, the kind of things that I do is we, one of the primary things we do is we take care of a $1.8 million budget. So every student, depending on the amount of credit they take, pay a certain amount to student government and with that money we're able to fund different student organizations, different initiatives on campus, and also our role is kind of to be that liaison between students and UNLV administration, as well as NCHI. And NCHI is the Nevada System of Higher Education, so we kind of play a primary role in communicating with those higher education officials all around Nevada. So we talk to other student governments such as our friends up in Reno and our other friends here down in the College of Southern Nevada as well. So that's a little bit of what we do, but I'll pass it on to Abe to kind of touch on that a little more.

0:03:56
Yeah, thank you, Karen. I think it's definitely been the same for me in stepping in and really seeing the gravity of what we're doing. And I think one of the things that I think is worth mentioning is the structure of our student government is very reflective of our own government here within the United States. And so we started off in the Senate. We just filled some Senate vacancies. We're in the process of filling our team right now. So that's one of the things that we're in charge of. We develop all of these different departments. We go through the hiring processes, make sure we develop a comprehensive team, a cabinet, a judicial council. And then moving on from there, given yesterday was actually our first 100 days in office and now we're really starting to get to kick into full gear. But even within these 100 days that haven't been part of the school year, we really haven't started our term within the school year. We've been able to do things with the budget and pass sponsorships and draft legislations and get students workers paid. And we have several committees that we also oversee and work with within our senate that make student scholarships as well, that do university initiatives. So really the scope of what we're able to do within student government is honestly really, really large in the scheme of a university level. And within our world, it begins to go past just the university level, which is very exciting.

0:05:31
Wow, that's huge. You said $1.8 million budget.

0:05:35
Wow.

0:05:35
So I'm very curious about how did you and Karen decide to become a team, a platform? I mean we see like in the NBA, I'm a sports gal. So we see how LeBron and Anthony are spending time out in the gym and vacationing and just kind of coming together mentally to talk about that win, that championship. That's what they aspire to, to reach that goal. I mean, talk about how did you all come together to decide that you all wanted to not only run together, but that you all, you know, could envision a better UNLV? I mean, how did you all do that? And how are you all spending your time to gel to make sure that you all are starting out on the same page and plan to remain on the same page as you, you know, lead this massive organization that you just mentioned?

0:06:25
You know, I'll take the lead on this one. I think the very first thing that I wanted to be able to do before even running for this position, I'm someone that eventually wants to run for actual public office. So something that's been very important to me is being able to trust myself to be in the representative role. And what I mean by that is being able to have and utilize skills that intake compassion while also listening to the voices of students and instead of overtaking their voices, it's just really amplifying them. And I think I saw that directly in a reflection of Karen. And I think we've worked, I mean, we've known each other for quite some time here and there. We really haven't been as close as we are now, but as we got into the Senate and we started seeing each other and how the other works in a space that is able to create change if you really want to put it forward, because I mean, one thing that I always say about our student government CSUN is that you get what you put into it. So if you really want to give it your all, everything is going to come out of it. So I think within that, I was able to look and evaluate the surroundings, evaluate the people that were around me. And I just knew that Karen is someone, as I feel myself, I'm able to trust to be in these representative roles and trust that we are going to represent communities that we are a part of and represent communities that we're not at the highest standard. And I think that's thankfully been able to hold true. Now we've become very, very close. I consider her one of my best friends. And beyond that, I mean, yes, we have a very great personal relationship, but just professionally, I feel like we very much mesh, even when we don't necessarily agree on the exact same page, we're always balancing each other out constantly, and I think that's very healthy to see within these roles as well. I'm getting emotional, but Abe pretty much covered it. We're always on the same page, and even if we don't agree, I knew from the start that our intentions were very much the same. And we both just want ultimately what's best for UNLV and our students and to just be those representatives. And we do definitely work well together. And yes, we pretty much covered it.

0:08:41
All right. Now I'm going back to the $1.8 million. And I'm reflecting on when I was a student back in the day, Renee, I was struggling with the deal with my little $250 a week student worker check. Right. So dealing with a budget of $1.8 million, could you talk a little bit about what the approach is for how you all work as a body to sort of balance that budget, to prioritize what programming, how the budget is going to be used, and sort of what the internal controls are to, I guess, issue money out and just track it.

0:09:16
Yeah, definitely. It's definitely a huge number. And I think that a lot of times within student government, a lot of times our senators can kind of get caught up in the fact that these numbers mean something. These are students' tuitions. It's a lot of money. So oftentimes we'll give a student organization like $8,000.

0:09:35
And a lot of times I have to sit back and be like, wow, that's literally my entire fall semester's worth

0:09:40
of tuition.

0:09:41
And so, when we were kind of approaching this budget, we kind of had a bigger budget than normal because of the past COVID year, we had a lot of rollover. And so, our approach into kind of delegating this money is, I don't think me and Abe realized how much, I guess, control we have under this budget. And so, what we really, really wanted to do is to just really give back to students and just kind of reallocate that money back to them. So we've been able to, yes, we've been able to allocate the most money we ever have to student organizations and funding their projects, but we also really wanted to delegate money towards a lot of student-facing projects. So we've been able to fund textbook vouchers or Rebel Cash or things like that that give directly back to students and then hopefully they'll be able to have these you know in-person experiences or even if they're virtual experiences being able to help them out with their overall college experience. And just to bounce off of that point as well I think we were also really surprised while forming this very massive budget and saying okay well something that feels like a million dollars to me, we're just going to have to act like it's $10 here because we have so much money and we really didn't know what to do with it. So as we went through the process, we had so many different drafts of the budget where we just kept adding more, taking away, changing this, changing that. And I think finally we came with a really comprehensive and digestible budget as well, which I think is important for transparency within UNLV's student body. And one of the best things I think that we were able to do is do that, that Karen just mentioned of giving back that money that has come from students to really help them. And I think particularly now within this time where there's so much economic hardship, and unfortunately, that's just going to continue, particularly for undergraduate students. A lot of these students are freshly coming out of high school. They don't have a master's degree. They don't have a bachelor's degree. They're just trying to go to school and do their part. So we were able to increase, we have the scholarships and grants committee, and I'm very excited to say that we've increased the amount that's going to be going to student scholarships. We added a new line. I know we had a line item for existing scholarships or new scholarships, and now we have one for existing scholarships. So we get to allocate more money than usual to existing ones. We still get to produce new scholarships. So I think it's going to be a very functional term, given where we've put what.

0:12:19
That's excellent. So given the fact that we're in a position to open the campus and to have more in-person classes and, you know, large-scale and small-scale programming and just to be largely in-person. But that still presents a challenge and opportunity to you all. How are you approaching and embracing this time as you start this process of leading this organization in the midst of a pandemic? Are you still using some of the things that the outgoing CSUN President Josh Padilla picked up or are you all starting anew? What's your approach to leading in the midst of this pandemic, even though we're back in

0:13:05
person?

0:13:06
Yeah, I think that it's definitely interesting, especially because now we're slowly transitioning to, I want to say in-person, but it's really this hybrid model. And in the past, that wasn't even an option on the table. And so ultimately, myself and Abe just want to prioritize student safety as something that kind of trumps over all over. It trumps over in-person events or having fun or being able to go to these in-person meetings, which of course I would love to do. But if students don't feel safe going to them, then that's ultimately our priority. But I would say our ultimate approach is kind of pushing for students to make sure that they're wearing their masks and getting vaccinated. We had our first in-person Senate meeting yesterday and it was our first meeting in I think 18 months, which was absolutely crazy. And so to be able to have those meetings, but to also kind of take a step back and be like, okay, you know, the pandemic seems to be getting worse over time, there's different variants coming out, students feel unsafe, and so our best approach to this is to make sure that if we have to transition back into an online format to do so. Yeah, and I think honestly talking in terms of the past administration as well, the past administration under Joshua Padilla did a great job in what they I mean, they were given a term of COVID and not even with us, if we are dealing with these kind of situations and circumstances, I mean, we've already had a year within CSUN where COVID has been something that's been a priority. But I think luckily we've been able to, one thing that I really like about our administration is that we always are looking to push the boundaries of what we thought wasn't really able to be done before. And now that we're in these roles, we know that really all it takes is just taking that step, asking the questions, saying that you wanna do this. And most of the times, honestly, you can. So in terms of our term, that's something that we're really trying to do. But again, like Karen said, it's always going to be second to student safety. And that's been honestly really up in the air, especially now that we're seeing numbers increase. So I guess we're just going to have to play this waiting game and do the best we can with

0:15:20
it.

0:15:21
And I know we joke, so, so Joshua left you the letter in the, in the, in the desk. You're finally able to get to that letter after like 100 days. So like, oh, it's got dust on it. Oh, but you know, Renee and I can't, but I wanted to also ask relative related to what Renee just asked, as we sort of are on the cusp of reopening in some hybrid model, what are you hearing from the student body in terms of those who are excited about returning in person and those who are wanting to remain virtual? And what's the message that you're conveying to those different perspective of students?

0:16:03
You know what, I'll take the lead on this one. First of all, I think that it's very important to know that CSUN, our government is very nonpartisan even in the sense that we are definitely a government structure. And I think it's been tricky because we wanna make sure that every last student's voice is heard and being represented. And that even when we are talking about the collective, we are still making sure that nobody falls through the cracks. And that includes what everyone feels is safe and right for them as an individual. But as now that we get further into this pandemic, and unfortunately, we're starting starting to get nervous hearing conversations of administration and students and how COVID-19 necessarily for a second, the conversation was, oh, masks are starting to go away, COVID-19 is over. And I think we need to remember that the battle isn't against the masks. The battle is against COVID-19. One very pivotal key argument that sometimes gets missed in translation. So I think that's something that we want to really start being more vocal about and push for is at the end of the day, we all want to have our college experience, whatever that may be to the individual. We want to make sure that all of us have that experience that we've been waiting for. And that experience just is not going to come if we don't go do our part and wear our masks wherever we can. I mean, I really have been trying to do this in a way that's been correct and make sure that everyone's voice is included. But I think it's starting to get to the point where we need to make sure that doing our part also starts including getting your vaccine and making sure that we believe the science because at the end of the day, the only real solid backing that we have to our safety is going to be wearing a mask and getting your vaccine. And I think if we are all able to do that as a community, we'll be able to move forward successfully.

0:18:15
So I'm curious-

0:18:16
To add on to that, it was just pretty interesting to kind of see, as the pandemic is slowly worsening again, to kind of go back and forth. It's become really frustrating for students to kind of be very confused, especially because the beginning of the school year is only two weeks out, less than two weeks out. And so students are very, very confused in terms of, are we going back in person? Some of my classes are going back into virtual. And I know that every student feels conflicted in the manner of, I want to be safe and learn virtually, but it's very, very difficult to learn in this online setting, kind of being deprived of that in-person learning experience. So we're just trying to do the best we can and making sure that we kind of stand firm in, you know, encouraging students to get their vaccine

0:19:01
and encouraging them to continue wearing their masks. Sure. Thank you for explaining how students are feeling conflicted. I wonder, can you speak to if the university should go in the direction of requiring students to show proof of vaccination to attend some of these large events so that we can really hone in the message that taking the vaccine is the best option at this time. How do you think that will resonate with students?

0:19:27
I know that I literally got an email this morning that on September 3rd, the Nevada Public Board of Health is going to be voting on whether NP or like any Nevada higher education institution is going to be mandating these vaccines. And I think that if the mandate does come through, I think it's going to be honestly very frustrating for a lot of students, especially because given that this, you know, kind of vote is happening not only in the beginning of the school year, but already during the semester. And so it's definitely something that feels last minute and feels kind of rushed, which I definitely can attest to. And although myself and Abe are vaccinated ourselves, it's really difficult to kind of see such a slow process and what is mandated and will we have to show proof of vaccines? And is that going to be happening in the middle of the semester? And if you're not vaccinated, will you even be allowed to go on campus? And how do we regulate that? And there's just a lot of questions as there have been throughout this entire pandemic. And so I definitely see an already frustrated student body becoming even more frustrated. But the sooner that we can possibly get a mandate through or possibly just encourage the safety of students, the sooner we can

0:20:38
kind of go back to normal and we'll no longer have to play this back and

0:20:42
forth game. Abe, did you have anything to add to that? Yes. Thank you. I think

0:20:46
the frustration of students, I would I would really, really be torn. And the last thing I would want to see is the frustration of students be shifted to being frustrated because of the effect that our community is going to undertake by rising COVID cases, particularly with UNLV being at the heart of our community. I mean, we have such a large, large, large number of students at our university alone. It is the only university within Southern Nevada at the very heart of Las Vegas. So I think we really have just a responsibility, especially as, you know, students that are going to be the future professionals, the lawyers, the politicians, the doctors, we really need to start formulating ourselves. And that's what I really, really love to witness from my generation, generations before me and after is that we're really starting to be able to say, how are we going to work together to make things better? Because if we don't, then it's not going to get better. And I think that's a chain that we're beginning to gnaw away at. And I think this is just another one of those ways. I mean, we do have to get within CCSD, at least as you go, you've had to get your shots to go to school, you know, it's just a regular process. And I think, although this is a very tricky and touchy matter that we wanna make sure everyone is accounted for, we will also wanna make sure that every single person is accounted for, their safety being that priority within them. So I think this is just one of those things and we'll be sure to make sure that everyone's voices are heard and that we still represent them.

0:22:38
All right, we'll get you out of here on this last question. And if you could share, what are you most looking forward to as we prepare to return to some in-person activities or hybrid for your administration? And then also, like, what would you define as a successful academic year for your administration and for the students you represent?

0:22:58
Yeah, this is a great question.

0:23:00
I think that if I had to define a successful school year, obviously the perfect scenario, I would love for it to be in-person, to have in-person events, but I think that if I can look back on my term and whether it be the impact that I made or Abe made or just CSUN as a whole or just seeing the different student leaders around UNLV, I would just like to, I think I'd define a school year as something where we just, as a year where we just made the most of what we had and were able to create connections, whether it was virtually or in-person and giving students that college experience the best with the best attributed to the circumstances. And I think I'm most looking forward to, obviously, yes, I'm very much looking forward to in-person events, but I am just looking forward to, even if it's one singular in-person event or if it's one, you know, large WebEx meeting, to be able to, you know, see my full CSUN team or to be able to look at, you know, a bunch of students and push through, you know, a really big project and being able to see that impact. I think that's something I'm looking forward to and it's something that we've gotten a little taste of during the summer, but to be able to see things going in full swing and to be able to see the impact that we made, whether it's myself or Abe or just CSUN as

0:24:17
a whole, I think that's something I'm really, really looking forward to. You know, I love Karen as a partner because she's so dramatic and it really makes me excited to move forward. I think I have to echo the same thing. I mean, for things that I'm excited for, I mean, we're having such beautiful conversations all across the board. We've been in contact with the community garden. We want to help restart the community garden, try to kind of collaborate that with the food pantry to adjust food insecurity. We've been talking with the New York Times. Hopefully we can get student subscriptions to the New York Times and all of that within that org. We're forming a President's Advisory Council. So directly talking to students, student organizations, being able to hear them and what their needs are directly. COVID dedication projects, community-based projects. I mean, I'm just so excited for really doing the work because I think it's been a long process of getting here and now that we're actually here we get to do what we've been meaning to do. So I think that's something that I'm very very excited for but more than anything I think a successful term would be just knowing CSUN and UNLV, even if it's a small percentage, is a little bit better than it was before we got there. And I think we're gonna be able to do that. I believe in us as a team, I believe in the people within CSUN, and I believe in the community at UNLV. So I'm very excited to see that flourish.

0:25:50
Well Abe and Karen, thank you so much for joining us as our CSUN Vice President and President. And Renee, I had a lot of takeaways. You know, this is very informative. Like I said, you know, I always sort of compared to when I was a student worker and what was on my mind, but certainly it wasn't at the scope and complexity of what Karen and what Abe has shared, in particular, you know, just, you know, how thoughtful they have been and how they're managing this $1.8 million, $8 budget and how they're really prioritizing student-facing activities in particular, like the textbook voucher program, increasing scholarships and grants for existing and adding new ones. And then also I appreciated what Abe shared about, you know, just having a servant's heart. And really it's about service being in these roles and it's about getting what you put into it. What about yourself, Renee?

0:26:45
Yeah, I'm just really impressed with what I'm hearing already, and their honesty about the conflicting times that we are in. I mean, but still embracing it as an opportunity. And I'm also pleased that they're looking at student safety as the priority. It's always good to know that students can see that and can role model that and can really be ambassadors and saying that should be our first priority is student safety. But I'm also pleased to hear that Karen and Abe have forged a great partnership even prior to taking on this role, because these leadership roles can be very lonely. You know, you're in this spot, you're in the limelight. So much is put on you, and the fact that they can lean on each other and can support each other and be on the same page with the same intentions is always great from a leadership point to see that happening. So I wish them nothing but success and I look forward to working with them. Gonna wish them that Jordan Pippen success. That's right, that's right. 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. That's a wrap. Tune in next week, Wednesday at 12 on KUNV 91.5 Jazz and More. That's a wrap.

0:28:05
That's a wrap!

Transcribed with Cockatoo