Let's Talk UNLV

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Alright, welcome to another segment of Let's Talk UNLV on KUNV. We're here with co-hosts Keith and Renee. Renee, how was your weekend?

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The weekend was pretty chill.

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Went and got some Thai food, went to the gym, walked on the trail. glad to see that the temperature is kind of you know with everything is not you know 120 you know so that's been nice what about you? Well this weekend we you

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know with we had already pre-planned it but we took a hundred high school kids to Southern California. Oh in my neighborhood! Hey your neighborhood is Southern Cal right?

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I'll walk in and...

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Okay. But no, I'm kidding. But no, but we visited Cal Poly, USD. Oh, wow. Okay. And then we capped it off with a cultural enrichment fun trip. You went to the top-notch schools. Okay. All right.

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Kids got to go to Universal Studios.

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Okay.

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So it was... Oh, that's wonderful. A nice trip, you know, for the kids because they've really worked extremely hard during the academic year. Mm-hmm. Did you do the Hollywood Walk of Fame? You did you do? We didn't do that in Chinese theater. We were just in and out. We were there for like two days. Okay, but gives us something else to do when we go back. Right and the beach. You're right there at the beach. We didn't make it to the beach either. Okay. All right. Next time on the itinerary, buy me from Southern Cal, okay? I got it. I didn't do that, but definitely next time. But I'm excited, you know, as we're preparing to return back to campus. We've been doing a lot of work. We had some successful virtual conferences, have some coming up. But I want to invite our guests. We have Sonny Gittins, who's our executive director of student involvement activities. And then we also have Jason Scott, who's a doctoral candidate, hopefully to be joining the club shortly.

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He gonna get it.

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He gonna get it.

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Yeah. Oh yeah.

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Oh yeah. We claiming that. Yeah, it's done. But each of them also work very closely on our Justice Impact Project rebound. And so we wanted to just hear some of the positive momentum that we've realized over this past year in how we're moving the conversation forward and putting together more support services for justice impacted students here at UNIV. So Jason and Sunny, welcome to the segment. Thank you. Great, great being here. And then if we could just maybe, Jason and Sonny, in turn, if you could just maybe share how you got connected to the Justice Impact Project. Well, I got involved with the Justice Impacted Movement a few years ago. I have personal and

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professional reasons for being involved with this. One of my duties as a doctoral candidate is to teach sociology classes. And one of the most important things I believe an instructor can do is to get to know their students. When you get to know your students on a personal level, I think it allows classroom to become a more interactive place where we can connect theory and practice and how it relates to the real world. And one thing that I noticed over the course of a few semesters is I would have a few students come up in my criminology classes to let me know that they were either formerly incarcerated or they had a run-in with the criminal justice system and how difficult it they were finding the process of navigating higher education. And I wanted to let them know that they weren't alone on campus. There were plenty of resources available to them. And with my own background, I was available to assist them through their trials and tribulations. So I started to network with various faculty and staff members on campus in terms of what can we do to assist this student population. And it was a slow process for a couple of years, but finally I was connected with Doctor Renee Watson and from that moment forward, I feel as though the trajectory has been fantastic. Doctor Watson and Sonny Gittins helped establish the Justice Impacted Task Force, and with that we've had a lot of great things come out of it. A summer institute, a peer mentoring program, and most importantly, a dialogue that's allowing the campus community to understand that just as impacted students are dedicated to higher education and they excel in the academy just like any other student would.

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Now Jason, I forgot to share with you as one of the offline disclaimers, we cannot give Dr. Watson any credit on the show. Because if you were sitting across from her, you would see her just beaming and her starting to levitate out of her seat.

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Keith, just stop.

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I got it, but she deserves the props. There's no question about it. Without Dr. Watson, I truly question whether or not I would have remained enrolled. So her beaming and levitating out of her seat is a well-earned accolade.

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And we kid, just so we kid.

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Yeah, yeah, we kid.

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But Sonny, if you want to maybe speak to how you got connected to this movement.

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Yeah, I will actually have to admit that when Dr. Watson reached out to me about the Justice Impacted Task Force, I really did not know very much at all about justice impacted. And so, despite 20 years in higher education, so I had to actually do a lot of self-education and looked at resources available to higher education through national associations and different readings. But I will also say that Jason Scott was a big piece of me understanding exactly what the structural and cultural barriers are for students that have a record of conviction and how it is that UNLV could be more accessible and supportive of our formally convicted students so that they could graduate with a degree. And so I will probably at this point say my passion for this comes from the opportunity to meet with a number of students who took the personal risk of sharing and disclosing their own record of convictions and their stories and what it was some of the challenges that they've experienced attempting to complete their degrees and based on those student stories is really where I felt like, hey, we need to really mobilize UNLV faculty and staff to recognize that we have a number of students on our campus that are justice impacted, and that there are ways that faculty and staff can be more supportive for that student population, and that they have unique needs that UNLV needs to be addressing.

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So if you could just maybe give us a basic definition or the working definition that you are using for Justice Impacted, and then maybe talk about some of those barriers that you identified, and then pivot to what are some steps that we're taking initially to

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address those barriers that you've already identified? Sure, I define justice impacted as any individual who has been arrested or convicted of an offense with the criminal justice system. I don't think that we should create a hierarchy in terms of who to include or not include in terms of offense types. So a person can have simply an arrest and being housed in a jail until their trial. And maybe they didn't have a criminal conviction, but they were still impacted by the system because of the negative experience they had. And then individuals who may have a misdemeanor or felony offense. those are the ones that we're talking about when we define justice impacted students. And I'm sure all of you know that there are cultural barriers that are involved in in the sense that finding adequate employment and housing a lot of this. A lot of this becomes very difficult to have gainful employment or to have adequate housing, because when you apply for an apartment or you want to rent a house or even get a loan, some loan companies ask a question, have you ever been convicted of a felony offense or a criminal offense? So it's something in your past that never seems to go away and these are some of the things that

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impact those that we call justice impacted students. One thing that I found interesting is that one in three adults have a criminal record. And of course, there's disparities in the criminal justice system that are ranged from arrests to sentencing decisions that really have disproportionately impacted individuals of color. And so I really see UNLV's efforts around serving our justice-impacted students as being a social justice movement of addressing those that sometimes have been impacted by the stigmatization of their interaction with the justice system. And so, some of our students are hesitant to disclose their status to others, and yet they do have additional needs that maybe our other students don't. So, some of those would relate to, um, as Jason had highlighted around, um, access around access to housing and financial aid and loans, but also unemployment for sure. But we also see that those that have convictions are more likely to have...be also individuals that have a disability. There sometimes is some psychological trauma associated with their experiences. And so there's a number of unique needs of the student population that UNLV can be helping these individuals to be able to graduate with a degree.

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And related to some of the barriers that you discussed and some of the needs, what are some of the recommendations that have come forward out of this committee or this group's work?

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One of the things that students have shared is that it can be really disconcerting to call an office and talk to a random person and disclose their status. And so what students said is like, hey, we would like an individual point of contact, like an actual person's name, where we know this will be a safe and inclusive environment for us. And so one of the things that we have created is a website. So if you go to UNLV and you Google justice impacted on our website, you'll see a website and there we have actually a variety of faculty and staff who stepped forward and said like, hey, I will be a point of contact for students in particular for various offices so that students know if they contact those back that they will have someone that will understand the structural and cultural barriers that justice-impacted students have and that it will be an environment where they can provide those. But one of the other things that students have shared is definitely there's some financial financial stresses in terms of being able to complete their degree, particularly because finding employment and housing can be a challenge as well as legal services. So one of the things that we are working on right now is applying for use of American Recovery Relief Funds so that we could provide some scholarships to justice impacted students, as well as some housing stipends. Also access to technology and the ability to check out like loaner laptops. One of the other particular services that students have requested is that sometimes our formerly incarcerated individuals have shared that while they're incarcerated, they don't have as much access to technology. And so, then now when they are back in the community and UNLV is saying like, hey, you're going to access this portal and you're going to go here, it's all like new information for them. And so, one of the services is really looking at technology in addition, of course, to legal services as well. Jason, what else would you add to that?

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Something else that I would add to that is the importance of having a mentor. The students have been great in terms of collaborating with each other and creating a support and mentor-mentee relationship, but I think it's extremely important for faculty to take on some of these roles as mentors as well. One thing that justice-impacted students don't want to be is isolated to the realm that you committed a crime. Your master status is that of a criminal. That couldn't be further from what they want. Justice-impacted students don't ask. They demand to be viewed as scholars and and academics, and we want faculty and staff to view us as such. And we stress the importance of having faculty and staff take us under their wings as mentees, and they can help guide us through the academy as future academics.

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So, Sunny, you admittedly said that when you started this work, you didn't know much about Justice Impacted. And I'm sure that took some level of humility, having served in student affairs for so long, and realizing this is not really topics that really come up even in our education as those who receive the master's and doctoral programs and higher ed programs. What was your process? Maybe talk to a listener who's wondering, like, where do I begin? I mean, I'm just hearing about Justice Impacted in this podcast. I mean, so maybe give some examples of how did you begin to do your own research in changing your language and making yourself available to students to learn more about their experiences. What was your process like?

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Yeah, that's a great question. I will say, while I don't feel like it's a topic that higher education talks about enough, it turns out that there are a lot of academic papers and national associations and resources that can assist. I just think it's not as previously discussed as it needs to be. And so, if you do search for that information, it is out there. But one of the community partners that has been great to work with is an organization in Las Vegas called Hope for Prisoners, and I think that they have been great at sharing resources within the community, but also really sharing what are the structural and cultural barriers that those that have a record of arrest experience. But I will also say our task force does offer training. And so we would be happy to come to any staff teams, faculty groups, and do presentations, because many of us that are on the Justice Impactive Task Force realize that it's not a topic that everybody is familiar with. And I very much would say that students have shared with us that they would like for faculty and staff to have more cultural competence around working with students with a record of conviction. And so whatever we can do to increase staff development and training around that topic, but I would happy to be a resource for people on campus and love sharing the knowledge that I've been able to acquire over the past couple of years

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as well.

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And then, Sunny, I know you mentioned that through some of your research that one in three adults sort of fall into this category. Does that number bear out from what we can tell from within the university student community?

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Yeah, I will say one of the great things about UNLV is that our admissions application does not require individuals to check the box, which does make UNLV more accessible. It also means that having an exact number of how many of our students are justice impacted has been a challenge for us. surveys and then also looking at other urban large institutions, we estimate that about 10% of our student population are justice impacted and I will certainly say that you can't look at a room full of students and know who is or is not justice impacted, right? It's something that you can't tell just by looking at students. And so I have found that the more I let students know that I could be a resource for justice-impacted students, the more students have disclosed to me their status.

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And I know that there was recently the Summer Institute and what were some of the outcomes of the Institute and maybe some next steps.

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Sure.

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We were thrilled to host a three-day Summer Institute in May. And this really came about in part because as we started doing some training development and students, a lot of faculty started asking more questions and we decided that we needed a panel of experts outside of UNLV. But we managed to make contact with Project Rebound, which is a well-established program in the Cal State University system, and the regional director for Project Rebound helped put together this Institute. And there was a variety of expert panelists, many from Project Rebound, but also from University of Oregon and Rutgers University. So, we have recorded the institute and I am happy to widely share the YouTube link so that others can view the institute. But the goals for the institute really was for UNLV would have a greater idea of what it is that we need to do moving forward to enhance our services and resources for justice impacted students. And so that's where we are now is trying to implement that action plan. One of the realizations I think that we had through that institute is that we need to look at having a full-time staff that are available that can assist students with navigating UNLV, serving as kind of a case manager, referring students to various services on campus, but partners to enhance the pipeline of individuals from corrections to college pipeline so that we can increase the number of individuals that see a attaining degree as being a viable option for those that have a record of arrest. Jason, what were your big highlights from the Justice Impacted Institute.

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I think you framed them quite well. In addition to that, I would say one of the major outcomes, at least from the perspective of Justice Impacted students, the Institute enfranchised and empowered voices of Justice Impacted students. We were able to present voices from coast to coast, California to New Jersey and in between. And we highlighted the voices of several accomplished students. We talked to students that were at the undergraduate level. We talked to students at the master's and doctoral level. Many of the students were multi-year dean's award winners, dean's list award winners, competitive fellowship winners. So it showed that students who are justice impacted, they do have a real voice and they have this lived experience that they're able to, they're able to do well in higher education and it's to educate the educators in terms of how to help this segment of the student population. So I think that was another important and key component that may not have been on the radar of those who created the institute, but I do think it was an outcome when I talked to various justice impacted students about it.

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And I know you mentioned that there's an interest in growing the pool of mentors from the university, how, if someone is interested in becoming a mentor, what's that process?

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Yeah, that's a fabulous question. I will say if there's any students or faculty or staff that are like, hey, I would like to be involved with this, I would say that Sunny Guttins would be a good contact person. They could reach out to me. I am keeping a list of students and faculty and staff that are interested in being mentors. And then we are looking to increase our ability to refer students that need services to those mentors that are on our list.

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Do students or faculty need any particular experiences or just have an interest in being involved?

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I would say just an interest. We will work with any faculty and staff to provide the resources that they need in order to fulfill that role. But a lot of times, I'm actually finding that a number of the people that have reached out to us actually do have a personal passion or experience before they've come to UNLV that in particular has launched their interest, but it really would be anyone. So I will say I when I came into this role, like I said, I didn't have a particular knowledge, but it really is listening to the student stories where I was like, oh I can assist these students even if it's not a personal identity that I share.

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Jason, we'll give you the last word.

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I would like to echo what Sunny said,

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and I can't stress the importance that those who want to help don't have to have a specific knowledge or experience to help. Extending a hand, letting students know that you're willing to mentor them, that you're willing to provide some guidance in higher education. I think that's a great first step. And collaboratively and collectively we can work our way through this process together. So for those that want to help, don't be discouraged because you haven't been formally trained. Know that as an academic scholar or staff member, you do bring something valuable to the table. And that value can be passed along to the students that need it the most.

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All right, Renee, what were some of your takeaways from today's segment?

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Well, you know, that final point I'm going to, you know, share that Jason reached out to me and asked for me to be his mentor. And I thought my first best attempt would be search far and wide, you know, on this campus or through INCHI, you know, to find a mentor. And so I just really want to echo that sentiment that you are enough Faculty and staff that these are wonderful students to work with they inspire me Jason's story is one that resonates with me Because I just have a heart for disenfranchised students And so I'm I'm all the better of a professional and administrator because of being his mentor. But I think the mentoring component is so, so critical. And I'm just so pleased to be on this journey with him.

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Yeah, I echo that. And I'm so appreciative just to hear all the great work that is emerging that's needed to be able to help these students be seen. And I know that through my work, we work with a lot of students who are similarly impacted, and this is important work. And I'm glad to hear that we are making progress. I'm going to become a mentor myself.

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Okay.

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That's why I was asking the question.

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Get it on the list, Sunny. Get it on the list.

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You heard it here.

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But finally, I do want to also give a shout-out to Sunny. I mean, you know, you can plant the bread crumbs and you can nudge folks, but it really does take leadership to get us this far. And that has really been Sunny Gittins. And so the Summer Institute and Go Sunny! Go Sunny! Right. And now this Project Rebound. I mean, really, she has been a go-getter with this. And so I would not want to close out this podcast without acknowledging her work, because she is just taking this program farther than I could have ever envisioned. Yeah, well deserved. 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