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Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/28760
THE INTERVIEW The general belief by many, many people in our state—and it’s kind of a national belief—is that “those higher ed people are kind of fat and well paid and don’t work very hard.” We’ve become public employees and public employees are now the enemy. We’ve gone through this winnowing in industry here. Thousands and thousands of people have lost their jobs. Their pay structures have been changed radically. That’s the challenge of working in the private sector. The glory years are over and there’s an awful lot of resentment of public employees who chose this slow and steady path. It’s like the tortoise and the hare and they’re trying to kill the tortoise. How frustrated are you about the budget cuts? I vacillate between despair and anger. At a minimum this is the most frustrating experience of my life because all the metrics support the value of higher education, and when you invest in higher ed your state does better. It’s universally understood. So as we radically disinvest, and believe that we can cut our way to greatness, I feel people are guilty of magical thinking. You don’t get something for nothing. We’re struggling with how to put this into a bigger perspective to get to where we need to be. For better or for worse we put it out all the time, but not everyone is equally receptive to the message. There’s a large group of business processionals in this community who really understand the benefi t of UNLV, value it and support it. You can look at our foundation board and our chamber of commerce and other entities, the Nevada Development Authority, they all know we need to have a good university here. I now sit on the NDA executive committee; I sit on the Las Vegas Chamber executive committee, it’s the fi rst time someone from higher ed has ever sat on that group. It signals a new awareness of how we need to partner in these times—to speed up our recovery. But the chamber for years has fought measures to broaden the tax base and develop a more stable revenue source for the economy, while the NDA sells Nevada as a low-cost place to do business. Slowly but surely, by participating [we’re addressing that]. The folks in those groups are major decision makers in our state. Working with them, bringing them to our campus, working collaboratively is really the key to gaining the kind of support that we need so that we can establish a reasonable revenue fl ow that’s predictable and stable. You believe your participation with these groups will change things? There’s a very strong sentiment of support in both of those agencies and we have to break through to that last little bit where there’s a recognition that only cutting the revenue fl ow to higher ed isn’t an answer. They’re looking for us to be very responsive to them, and we’re willing to put that completely on the table and develop strong partnerships. (UNLV is already known for working with NV Energy to establish a renewable energy minor and is retasking its hotel college to be more responsive to hotel- casino industry needs). But the fl ip side of that coin is that we can’t do it with the kinds of cuts we’ve had—we need them to back budget stability. The “no tax” mantra is a little bit of a refl ex. I don’t blame them. Who wants to pay more taxes? But if you view taxes into profi t centers as investments—who in their right mind would want to lose that business [generated by UNLV for the state’s economy]? What do you say to people who feel that because UNLV isn’t going to become Stanford or MIT, it’s not worth supporting? No one knows what we’re going to become. If your state dedicates itself in the same way Utah did, we could become a Stanford or a MIT—it’s a question of will. I don’t want to say we’ll be Harvard or Stanford or MIT—we want to be what this region wants us to be. We’re in a unique city that is an icon for entrepreneurial approaches to creating the greatest entertainment destination SEE PAGE 41 Welcoming Jim Mace to Greenberg Traurig Jim atop the Trump Tower located on the famous Las Vegas Strip. 32 | 4 APRIL 2011 |