Keith Whitfield (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) oral history interview conducted by Kelliann Beavers and Taylor Cummings: transcript

An Interview with Keith Whitfield
Perspectives from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Leadership and Learning in Nevada
Produced by:
The University of Nevada Las Vegas
The Lincy Institute
2024
Principal Researchers:
Magdalena Martinez, Ph.D. and Kelliann Beavers, Ph.D.
The following interview was a part of the “Perspectives from the COVID-19 Pandemic:
Leadership and Learning in Nevada” research project. The recorded interview and transcript
were made possible through the generosity of The Lincy Institute at the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas. The goal of the project was to understand and document how Nevada organizations
and leaders responded to the myriad challenges that the pandemic engendered. The interviewees
thank The Lincy Institute and their supporters for the opportunity to reflect on their roles
throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers also acknowledge the following
individuals who contributed to the conceptualization, data collection, and analysis of the project:
Dr. John Hudak, Dr. Makada Henry-Nickie, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Taylor Cummings,
Peter Grema, Kristian Thymianos, Saha Salahi, Madison Frazee, and Katie Lim.
Each interviewee had the opportunity to review their transcript. All measures have been taken to
preserve the style and language of the interviewee. This interview features Keith Whitfield,
President of University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and was conducted on 10/11/22 by Kelliann
Beavers and Taylor Cummings. This interview covers topics including reflections on leadership,
organizational challenges, and opportunities for collaboration.
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Interview with Keith Whitfield
Date: 10-11-2022
SPEAKERS: Kelliann Beavers, Taylor Cummings, Keith Whitfield
Kelliann Beavers [00:11]
All right. So to confirm, you’re comfortable with us recording the interview. We will then
provide you with a transcript for you to review and refine. And after that, you’re comfortable
with us using your name if we were to quote you.
Keith Whitfield [00:26]
Yes.
Kelliann Beavers [00:27]
Okay, great. So our first question is, can you describe your role, throughout the pandemic, and
the subsequent economic downturn, and how you saw the role of UNLV, as well as your role,
during that time?
Keith Whitfield [00:41]
(laughs)
Kelliann Beavers [00:43]
I know that's a huge question.
Keith Whitfield [00:45]
Yeah, I was going to say. I don’t know if I've ever been asked that about my role. So, I serve as
the president of UNLV. That means my responsibilities go for the faculty, staff, and students,
both in terms of being able to continue either their working or educational pursuits at the
university throughout the time of the pandemic. I'm also responsible for the external
relationships that go on between the university, community, and beyond. And I'm also
responsible for fiduciary aspects of the university as well.
Kelliann Beavers [01:29]
The next question is also a "biggie." Can you walk through a timeline, as you remember it? What
happened, and what did you do? Obviously, just include the highlights that you feel you would
like to speak about.
Keith Whitfield [01:43]
Highlights relative to the time during the pandemic?
Kelliann Beavers [01:46]
Yes. So just as it unfolded. And keeping in mind that we started doing these interviews much
closer to the height and peak of the pandemic. And obviously, time has passed, so we just ask
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folks to sort of look back and articulate, in their memory, how things happened and what they
remember most strongly.
Keith Whitfield [02:07]
Okay. Let's see. Well, first and foremost, I started in August 2020. As we tend to do, we mark the
middle of March as the beginning of the pandemic.
So it was up and going. As I applied for the job, actually, that was one of the critical things that I
did was to look and see what the response had been. One of my decision-making, in terms of
being interested in pursuing the position, was that the values of the current leadership matched
mine, which was that the people come first. It wasn't about trying to make sure that we had
classes or whatever. It was really the safety of people first and foremost. And then all those other
decisions that needed to be made came after that and related to that issue of safety and the
importance of people first.
So I started, actually, on August 24, 2020. I will say that I virtually broke my neck to pack up my
stuff from Detroit, and to move here, to be here on the first day of classes. Because I thought that
it was an important marker, as we faced the challenges of the pandemic, for there to be a new
leader in place on that first day of class. So I was here and began all of the work of, one, learning
about the university, but also thinking about the kinds of responses that we needed to make.
Understanding what our resources were relative to being able to pivot – because I knew that it
was going to be something that was going to change constantly, and it, sure enough, did. And
worked to make sure that we were communicating appropriately. That is interesting from a
president's position because it usually means more than just written communication. It involved a
lot of time, which I'm quite uncomfortable with, in front of a camera, to try to make sure that we
had plenty of recordings of things, and so they saw who was actually making some of those
decisions.
That took us through, I would say, through the fall. And trying to figure out ways to creatively
make sure that we kept things as normal as possible. I thought about decisions relative to how
many people we should actually have on campus, and balancing out, again, safety for people
first. And then making sure that our faculty had the resources that they needed to be able to
deliver remote education and have most of it that way. I think it was over 80% that was remote.
I continued that in the spring of '21. And as the pandemic then changed a bit – was that '21? –
gosh, you’re making me remember the timeline here.
Kelliann Beavers [05:00]
(laughs)
Keith Whitfield [05:03]
So, one of the things that we decided was that as we saw the wearing of the pandemic on people,
was that when things actually started getting better towards the spring of '21, we would do an
outdoor graduation – which came with much questioning about that. But several things had
changed, and even the distancing had changed at that time, and we thought that it would be
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appropriate for us to be able to do that. We were then able to pull up classes from both the fall
and the spring, to be able to actually have an in-person ceremony. That went very well.
And then, as we went into the fall, and vaccines became necessary – or became available – that
was another whole line of challenges and questions. As you may know, for students, that was
dictated by the Southern Nevada Health District, and then for personnel that were placed on
NSHE, and then two presidents. And while we had an exception policy, people could both put in
their exception requests and if they didn't like the answer, they could appeal it to me.
So I used most of the information that was actually coming from the reviews of the committees
that make those decisions. And there were – I don't even know what the stats were in terms of
how many we actually approved in terms of appeals, but we did do some, trying to make sure
that we provided as much flexibility as possible.
Then, when mask mandates came off, we wanted to make sure we used that as an opportunity for
people to be able to wear masks or not wear masks. And so they had some personal choice and
personal decision-making, which I think is very important. But making sure, again, this whole
time, making sure that we're trying to be very clear in our communications. That safety came
first, and we should even make sure that we take into consideration other people's circumstances.
Because some people wore masks, not because – they didn't wear a mask because they wanted to
be free from the mask. But people who wore masks wore them for a purpose and a reason, and
we needed to be appreciative of one another.
And so, that was some of the other messaging that came in, over time, was making sure that we
tried to encourage a sense of community around this. One of the things, in terms of public health,
is the idea that it's the public. It's not just an individual. And so we encouraged people to make
sure that they were understanding, and also, to reach out; so that, if they saw somebody who
might be suffering, and experiencing difficulties in trying to navigate the pandemic – that maybe
they didn't offer help, but maybe they offered suggestions for them to seek out help.
Then, as a university, we made sure – my background's in psychology. Our provost's background
is in psychology, and so we were very cognizant that there were some mental health challenges
that were going on. People [were] experiencing stress, depression, anxiety, loneliness, and
isolation, and those things cause other kinds of problems. They even cause physical health
problems.
And so, to try to combat that, we worked with some of our faculty to see what kinds of programs
we could put in place, and there was some training on wellness that we did for one group of
faculty, and also, we increased the number of psychological counselors that we had. Increased
our CAPS – our psychological services personnel – by about 65%. And if we have our way,
we're going to double that as we finish up finishing the hiring. We have found that those hires are
fully-subscribed. There are people going to them and seeing them because there are a lot of
issues that are out there.
And then – I'm trying to think of the rest of it. I guess, moving into the fall of '21, we had our
first kind of "normal" graduation. And then, in the spring of '22, had another "normal"
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graduation. No more social distancing. Masks were not necessary. But always making sure we
actually continually sent a message about trying to manage safety and manage expectations.
Kelliann Beavers [09:52]
Thank you so much. I didn't know about your background in psychology, and it's really helpful
to hear you share so many of those things.
The next question is, how did you work with, or observe, groups who were hardest hit by the
pandemic, and who were those groups, in your opinion? And this may overlap somewhat – your
response at the end, with respect to the mental health of the students. But anything that you'd like
to share?
Keith Whitfield [10:15]
One of the other things that we tried to keep mindful of was that we had frontline workers. We
had people that were keeping – our campuses remained beautiful, and all of the systems have
remained active. And that came from what we call "frontline workers" being here and being on
campus.
And then also, making sure that people had the kinds of resources that they needed to be able to
do remote work, both in terms of course instruction, as well as just some of their day-to-day jobs.
The interesting thing is that one of the many transitions that were made was that once we didn't
have to do remote work, the idea was well, so, would we allow remote work to continue on? And
we made those decisions, and one of the priorities was that the student-facing offices, once we
returned to work, really needed to be back at work.
And then we allowed there to be more local decision-making about possible flexibility in work
requirements. Remote work was an issue well before the pandemic. And so, you know, that's one
of the changes that's happened, I think, in higher ed, period, and in lots of our lives is the issue of
remote work. But for some of that we were making sure that if there are people – one of the
adjustments you were saying is for people that may need additional time off, sometimes to care
for family, parents, or children, we try to be as flexible as possible. Even making sure that people
could donate some of their time – their time could be donated to somebody else. That's a
program we have here as well.
And one of the other things that our HR department did was to make sure that, coming back, we
provided some things to try to reduce stress. I mean you could get a massage if you wanted.
Somebody would come and do a massage. There were other kinds of activities to do, to try to
make that reintroduction as easy as possible for the people who were coming back to work.
Kelliann Beavers [12:30]
The next question is, is there anything you wish that the government, at any level, had done
differently, or could do differently now, in response to the pandemic or the downturn of the
economy?
Keith Whitfield [12:44]
So for the pandemic piece of it, there was a point at which the CDC suggested that we should
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discontinue the use of masks, and just from my perspective, I thought it was still early. And then
when we saw a reintroduction, and we needed to kind of go back, it was ten times harder. You
kind of, once you let Pandora out of the box, it's hard to fit them back in.
So I think because we had moved to the ability to not necessarily be happy with masks but to use
masks, I think retreating from that should have been done, actually, after there had been an ample
amount of time to really know that we had tried to suppress, as much as possible, and even let
the vaccine take its hold for a little while beforehand. So, overlapping strategies.
What was the second part? There was – oh, about the economic piece of it? Is that the other half
of that question?
Kelliann Beavers [13:53]
Yes. I said in response to the pandemic and/or the economic downturn following the pandemic.
Keith Whitfield [13:59]
Relative to the economic downturn – that one's interesting for us here in Las Vegas because it
was a downturn that was caused by things turning up by housing prices, mostly, which is –
usually, 25 to 35% of people's income is related to housing. And so the increase in housing that
came from problems with logistics, that came with people sometimes not being able to pay their
rent – all of those things. That was one thing that, unfortunately, we're not in a position to be able
to help that much with. We do have a bit of an issue with the level of our salaries here in higher
education in this state.
And so there wasn't really – I think you were asking for my opinion of it. I think that the
financial support that was provided was good. I almost wish that there could be a way that it
could have been extended to more people, and also, had been extended longer. But there's a cost
to pay for doing that sort of thing. And so, I know that balance was something that was struggled
for by our political leaders, to try to figure out what to do. But I think that it offered a little bit of
a soft landing. It was temporary, but it still offered a soft landing, at least for some people, for a
little while, and probably made a little bit of the transition back to engaging in workforce sorts of
things a little bit easier, so I felt that was useful.
Kelliann Beavers [15:45]
Thank you. The initial part of your response also made me remember something. That it's so
interesting how, each time I do an interview like this, I realize how I've almost blacked out things
that happened during the pandemic, and not realized it. I think when you were talking about the
CDC making the recommendation that it would be okay to stop wearing masks, I think there was
a moment in there where the CDC was recommending "X," and our local health district was
recommending – "Our strong recommendation is that you continue to wear masks," if I'm
remembering correctly, and I had sort of forgotten that that wasn't married all along the way.
Keith Whitfield [16:19]
Yeah.
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Kelliann Beavers [16:20]
So it's interesting to reflect on.
Keith Whitfield [16:22]
And even – there was, I think, one point where the governor was making it optional. And so then
we, as an institution, had to decide what was going to be our policy on campus. I think what we
said is that we have to follow the governor's rules. That "Yes, it's optional, but we strongly
suggest that you wear – it was always leaning towards caution, rather than the easing of the
restrictions which are difficult for people. But, again, hoping that we could stretch them out as
long as possible, to try to reduce the numbers as much as possible, and with the help of the
vaccine, public health kinds of precautions that are made; that's masking. That we would do our
bit to be able to try to help.
One of the interesting things is that, as you track the pandemic, our campus numbers were
actually lower than the city numbers. And so – we didn't ever brag about this – but in some ways,
being on campus was actually safer than being in the city. I think that's because, in some ways,
we really did encourage people, and they did follow those encouragements or even some of the
rules that we set up for the public health and safety sorts of precautions.
Kelliann Beavers [17:38]
That's really interesting in retrospect. Thanks for sharing that. I know that your leadership,
especially when the pandemic was new, and you had just stepped into your role, was so
meaningful for all of us. And we were all sort of restless to see what the new roles were going to
be and waiting for that email or announcement. And I was grateful for how sensitive and
measured your responses always were. So thank you for that. I know it couldn't have been easy.
Keith Whitfield [18:08]
It was a cakewalk. (laughter)
Kelliann Beavers [18:11]
That's a wonderful way to think about it.
The next question is, what do you think we can learn from the COVID crisis that could be a
lesson for future crises?
Keith Whitfield [18:24]
Well, first and foremost, I just want to make a comment that we have to learn from this event. We
have had many events, actually, when you’re talking about the economic piece, and thinking
about the 2008 downturn, the recession. We haven't really learned that much from that. I mean
there are some regulatory things that are in place, but I think the American people, we don't have
much more in our savings account than we used to have before. So that was one of the things that
I think - the pandemic it was a health issue, we were thinking that it was a health issue – but it
was an issue that affected our economy in so many different ways.
And so it's my hope that we can learn from it. We need to learn a bunch of lessons. One of them
is quick, measured responses. As you're talking about infectious diseases, hopefully, there are
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enough of us that – it depends on how soon the next one is. Hopefully, there will be people who
embrace the idea of masks – I have masks everywhere – that we won't be searching for them.
We'll know where they are, and we'll know to be able to wear them. I take that, in part, from
having been in China a number of times over the years. And that wearing a mask there is just – it
happens all the time, especially in Beijing, where the air quality is so, so poor. It is not an odd
thing to wear a mask. And so, hopefully, we will remember that lesson, and that we can be a little
less resistant to having to wear a mask, and to be able to adjust to it.
I think the other piece of what we need to have learned is the idea that this is an infectious
disease – or an example of an infectious disease – that we need to understand that it is very, very
communicable in lots of different ways: airborne, surface, or whatever and that those kinds of
precautions are actually necessary. That we need to see if we can push back less and accept it
more because that will actually have the result of being able to bring it under control more
quickly.
One of the other pieces to learn; I do go back to the economic piece and say I wish everybody
had at least $400 in their savings accounts. That's a number that we continue to hear, that
Americans don't have – and it's just a very, very basic sort of number – but the idea of
understanding that there are lots of things that can create economic hardship and that we have to
figure out a way we can best be ready for that.
We also need to have plans for being able to deal with and help our most vulnerable populations.
As we saw, this truly, differentially, affected older people and poor people. And that we need to
figure out ways to be able to make sure they get the same quality care and the same amount of
care as everyone does. And that's a goal that needs to be an everyday goal, particularly when
we're put in crisis situations.
Kelliann Beavers [21:38]
Thank you, yeah. That's been one of our largest takeaways, and that's sort of a new focus for this
project since we began looking at the inequities that existed prior to the pandemic, and how those
have been amplified or responded to in ways that we consider more sensitively as we go forward.
Taylor's going to ask another – the rest of the questions, so I’m going to pass the baton to her.
And thank you for letting me lead the interview thus far.
Keith Whitfield [22:02]
Sure.
Taylor Cummings [22:03]
All right. So, what do you think have been the most innovative ways organizations, the
university, or citizens have dealt with the challenges of the pandemic and recession? These can
be examples of collaboration, programs, or anything else that comes to mind.
Keith Whitfield [22:20]
Here in the valley, I think one of the things that this did was to offer an opportunity for higher
education. And part of it is leadership because there's a personality piece to it. But in times of
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crisis, sometimes you can make friends with folks that you didn't necessarily make with before.
And one of the things that we've done, as an institution, is to be able to better connect with the
community, particularly with the K-12. That's a longstanding issue for us, but I think that the
pandemic actually opened up the possibility for the collaborations that we've been able to start.
And so I think that's been fantastic.
I think that it's also given us an opportunity to take a closer look at how public health is actually
run in this state. It's a lot on the Southern Nevada Health District, but it basically has to be for
multiple agencies. And I think there was a lot of coordination in multiple agencies, and
Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick would hold a Monday morning – I don’t know what she
called it – but a meeting of police, fire, education, health district, and water, for everyone to think
about ways in which they could actually work together.
So I think that it actually improved some coordination. I don’t know how long it will last. But I
think even just knowing that it's possible – will open up opportunities where if some
coordination is needed in the future, to know that these entities can actually work together and
communicate with one another.
Taylor Cummings [24:02]
Yeah. That's something that has been coming up a lot is this idea and the need for collaboration,
and not us working in these separate silos. But knowing that everyone has to come together to
sort of address these issues.
And I do have a follow-up question, though, in regard to the K-12 collaboration, just because this
interview is existing in our education sector, and so we'll be talking to other educational
organizations. But what sort of supports, or if specific educational organizations come to your
mind – but what specific supports were you sort of doing, or looking to do, with K-12?
Keith Whitfield [24:37]
So with K-12, some of this is pandemic-related, but most of it is just normally what should be
done.
Taylor Cummings [24:43]
Okay.
Keith Whitfield [24:45]
And that is – one is to be able to address the teacher shortage that we have. So we created a
teacher pathway model during the pandemic, to try to help people who are already at CCSD but
didn't have the qualifications to be able to be a teacher. And so we created a pathway for them to
more quickly do that. We’re working on some online content. That's not been finished yet, but
that would be another opportunity to be able to better prepare and educate our teachers.
Taylor Cummings [25:13]
Okay.
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Keith Whitfield [25:14]
Some of the other pieces have been just saying that we're going to figure out ways to work
together. And one of my big pushes is for summer programs so that kids can continuously be
educated and inspired to be able to go as far as they can. And you know, some of it is even softer
stuff that's happened in the past of what we're trying to put stuff into action now. And that is the
idea that we need to increase the number of college-going students that we have. This connects
with the economic diversification; this connects with even what's going on in the strip, you
know.
One of the kinds of adages that people have said for years is well, you know, you don't even need
a high school diploma. You can go work on the strip and make a good salary and be able to take
care of your family. And, even for those who are parking cars now, you’re using more
technology than ever before. And so there is a need for a life-long learning perspective and a
perspective where a high school diploma is the very, very minimum. Honestly, you need these
additional sorts of things to be able to engage in the world that we have, and in the opportunities
that are coming to engineering and hospitality, to lots of other different disciplines, and even to
try to help encourage people to take pathways into things like engineering and nursing, which
we're very, very short on. They're occupations that are in high demand, and we need to be able to
figure out ways to get more kids interested in them. Supporting the STEM programs. That starts
in the K-12 space, but then extends, and it's truly supported by higher education the best, to be
able to provide opportunities for STEM learning.
Taylor Cummings [27:01]
Well, thank you. That was very helpful. Were there any specific policies at the university
implemented that you noticed impacted people, either positively or negatively?
Keith Whitfield [27:15]
Well, the mask mandate was both positive and negative. Having people come back and having
in-person classes had positives and negatives. Let's see-
Kelliann Beavers [27:30]
If there's anything you want to share about, I'm not sure how this funneled through, or parallel to
the university, but the CARES funding or the ARPA funding. So that it's more about policies
outside of the university and how they supported the university. I don't know if that's relevant.
But if there's anything there, you could also talk about that.
Keith Whitfield [27:50]
Sure. Well, it's interesting, that point, how that helped the university was that rather than having
some really incredible economic hardships – the CARES funding and the HEERF funding
actually helped us in lots of different ways. We would use them both to be able to support
students, so that they could continue their education, but as well for some of the kinds of losses
that we were facing because lots of funding was cut as the pandemic went in. For example, we
had an engineering building where all of the funding was for the medical school, all of that was
cut.
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So that helped to return not those two particular examples, but they did make it a little easier to
make sure that we could have continuous operations without fail. Some of that was for salaries
for things that were of high interest and high need and support for students and for faculty. And
so those fundings were very, very important for us.
Taylor Cummings [28:53]
And our last question, are you hopeful? And if yes, what are you hopeful for?
Keith Whitfield [28:59]
Wow. So it's too funny. Because I actually quote Charles Barkley, who I've never previously been
a huge fan of. His style is not one that I really necessarily identify with. But he was doing an
interview with Seth Curry, actually, and he said, he goes, "You know, this is a two-choice
decision as we go forward. You can be either hopeful, or you can be hopeless." And he goes, "I
choose to be hopeful." And I was just so surprised because I was like – I actually agree with
Charles Barkley. This is one of those things where there's nothing to celebrate. We need to
remember all of the people who we've lost, and who are experiencing complications from having
contracted COVID. But we really do need to use this as an opportunity to be able to move our
society forward, and to be able to move – in my world, it's our educational opportunities forward.
The economic diversification piece of it is one that I know has been talked about in the state
before during the downturn. And for me, I think that it's a perfect opportunity to actually
demonstrate the power that universities have. That I don't think it was appreciated as much
before – we have moved into that space, and really shown how we can help to attract business
and diversify business. And be able to better prepare people to be able to go into the workforce
in highly-technical jobs, and in jobs that are in high demand.
And so that's what I'm hopeful for, is that legislators and folks that are dealing at the state level
actually understand and appreciate the power that universities actually bring. I'm not fooled into
believing that it will be perfect, but I'm hoping that we can just move the needle on that a bit.
And the other places for people to be able to understand and appreciate that the university,
through tracking, tracing, vaccinations, and testing, that we played an incredibly important role
in the community to be able to move through this. And that they figured that out and learned that
that's just one example of the many ways in which the university is actually an incredible plus for
our community.
Taylor Cummings [31:19]
Thank you. That's very, very helpful. And just really quickly, our last, last, question is, are there
any other people that you think would be helpful for us to speak with?
Keith Whitfield [31:31]
Possibly, Adam Garcia.
Taylor Cummings [31:32]
Okay.
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Keith Whitfield [31:34]
If you haven't spoken with him. The other person who really took an incredible leadership role,
in our university's response, is Provost Chris Heavey.
Kelliann Beavers [31:58]
Yeah. Thanks for sharing both of those names. Sometimes the names that seem the most obvious
don't necessarily come to mind when we're reaching out. So it's really good to have a reminder of
who it would be good to reach out to if they have time to talk to us.
Keith Whitfield [32:11]
Good.
Kelliann Beavers [32:14]
Well, thank you again so much for your time and for everything that you've shared. It's been
immensely meaningful for your leadership as a whole. We're very grateful to you on many
levels.
Keith Whitfield [32:23]
Well, thank you very much. It sounds like this is dissertation work and policy institute work,
which I have valued greatly since I've been here. You all are a wonderful repository for
information, and you have those quirky questions. And so, hopefully, this will – in ten years,
we'll look back on it, and your report will be something that will be one of those quirky questions
of that "How do you respond to a pandemic? Everybody knows how to do that."
Kelliann Beavers [32:49]
I sure hope so. (laughs)
Taylor Cummings [32:53]
Off the record, I know you talked a lot about communication and clarity during that time. For me
personally, the communication was not very clear. And I almost lost my assistantship because I
didn't know that as a student, and I guess, as faculty, I needed to have two vaccine exemption
forms. And so, me and my advisor, I only submitted the one for my student status. And then I got
all these letters about termination, and I was like "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I got approved. I got
approved." And so, I had to go through the process of just trying to make sure that everything
was set in stone so that I could continue.
Keith Whitfield [33:29]
Well, I'm glad that we did have things in line, that actually were redundant systems, to be able to
catch people. Because you are a certain slice – that you were in both camps, and you know, you
answer one, and then – wait a minute – there's two checkmarks, and you only checked one of
them. So that does happen. But it is funny. Communication at a university, on a normal day,
before the pandemic – if I sent out something, maybe 25% might actually have opened up.
Taylor Cummings [33:58]
Oh, yeah.
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Keith Whitfield [34:00]
During the pandemic, it was probably more like 75 to 80%.
Taylor Cummings [34:02]
Really?
Keith Whitfield [34:04]
Because everybody wanted information. But even with that, there were still unique
circumstances that we had to try to pivot from, and I'm glad it was a positive one for you, Taylor.
Taylor Cummings [34:15]
…it became positive. (laughs) But yeah.
Keith Whitfield [34:18]
Well, you’re still here. You’re still enrolled. So it must be positive.
Taylor Cummings [34:20]
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that you can't be scared to talk to us. You've got to
get in front of the camera and send us messages because we're trying to see stuff, and I'm like
"What is going on?"
Keith Whitfield [34:33]
My problem is that I do that all the time. And actually, it's not a problem. I do like doing –
making sure that – it's one of those things where I consider myself – I call myself, sometimes, to
my cabinet, I say, "I'm a working President." I said, "Don’t do all the work and then send me
something to sign. I actually want to do the work."
Taylor Cummings [34:54]
Yeah.
Keith Whitfield [34:55]
But part of my work is communicating those things. And it takes an enormous amount of time.
Even the external relationships take an enormous amount of time. And you don't get to do the
real, "cool" stuff, where you’re problem-solving, you’re trying to create something new, or to do
whatever. It is the struggle, depending on who you are as President, of what you have to do and
what's important.
So, just for you, I will make sure that I continue – or actually, the real solution is the Digital
President. You guys didn't ask me that.
Taylor Cummings [35:25]
I saw you – I tried to talk to you. You don't have all the answers online, though.
Kelliann Beavers [35:29]
(laughs)
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Keith Whitfield [35:30]
Well, but see if you don't engage, we don't learn. It's artificial intelligence.
Taylor Cummings [35:34]
Okay. All right.
Keith Whitfield [35:38]
And actually, it was never meant that it would have everything. We had to launch it so that there
would be questions. And then they actually go back every single week, and stuff where it looked
like it fumbled, we start making more ties and connections.
Taylor Cummings [35:49]
Nods. (affirmative)
Kelliann Beavers [35:51]
Oh, that's so cool! I'll definitely have to explore using it. We'll encourage our students to do the
same thing. Because I saw an article about that – I haven't used it yet. But it's a really neat tool.
Keith Whitfield [36:03]
And that's another thing, too, for your report. The purpose was that yeah, we've got this great
tech. But the purpose was that I was concerned about the students that we weren't connecting
with. I was worried about the students who – Taylor, you know – you went, and you were
beating down doors. Some of our students were much more passive and weren't getting
information, and time was going by, which usually complicates the problem.
So this was just yet another way in which, for us in administration, we're trying to reach out to
students, to connect with students, and to make sure those who might – most recently, for
example, we have a mental health module that's to try to help give students where they need to
go. But boy, Taylor's just too hard on me today.
Kelliann Beavers [36:46]
(laughs)
Keith Whitfield [36:48]
We didn't get the – we didn't need the vaccination study part. We haven't got the Digital President
right. Boy! I tell 'ya.
Taylor Cummings [36:55]
It's how we have solutions, you know? We've got to talk about this stuff.
Keith Whitfield [36:58]
Okay.
Taylor Cummings [37:01]
The pivoting.
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Kelliann Beavers [37:02]
I will say, what you said about not reading the university president's emails until you came on
board is absolutely true. I had been at this university for over three years by then. And the point
at which you started sending emails, I was like "Oh, how exciting! We've gotten an email from
the university president.”
Keith Whitfield [37:19]
Well, everybody was hungry for information because it was helping you to make decisions. And
so, people were – I was telling the provost this the other day. I said, "You know, there's going to
come a time when people are going to go back to where they were before."
Kelliann Beavers [37:31]
No – I open your emails still for that reason, though.
Keith Whitfield [37:33]
It doesn't look too much like that.
Kelliann Beavers [37:36]
I feel like you’re my – you secured my trust.
Keith Whitfield [37:40]
Okay. (laughs)
Kelliann Beavers [37:41]
And now I always read your emails because, at a time when I needed communication, you were
there. I think there's something to be said about that. I don’t know what the statistics are like, but
if I see an email from you, I always read it now.
Keith Whitfield [37:55]
The response is far higher than it used to be.
Kelliann Beavers [37:56]
Yeah.
Keith Whitfield [37:58]
It's just that you were asking the question about, have we learned lessons? And I think that with
the information overload that all of us deal with, we will select certain things. And so, again, you
know, I do try to focus our – what we put out there, it's important. We don't put out just anything.
We put out stuff that's important. So, hopefully, that will stay up, so that again – that's another
avenue that, when we're shifting, when we're making changes, when we're advancing, when
things are exciting, and when there's opportunities to be done, we're going to use that as a
method, and hopefully, as many people as possible use it.
But like I said, people like to go back to that – and well, too, again, it is trying to process a lot of
information. With certain things – and you go "Eh." I do it with my email all the time, you
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know? If Inside Higher Ed sends me stuff, I just delete it. I'm like, "Look. I'll search for you if I
need you. I don't need you to tell me what's going on."
Kelliann Beavers [38:57]
I was grateful for your leadership about DACA this week, or last week when you sent that out. I
forwarded it to someone else, and said, "This is what it is to have good leadership." And we got
that quickly; we got it promptly, from you. It was clear. It was compassionate. It was a really
important message.
Keith Whitfield [39:12]
Well, thank you. That is one of the – it's so funny – you all are doing research on the pandemic.
But there are these other big issues that were there; social justice is another one that the
pandemic kind of intersected with and just exploded. Both the partisanship, both the concerns,
both the curiosity and all of those sorts of things. And for our university, who we are, which is
that we're one of the greatest because we're one of the most diverse. That's just an issue that it's
easy to think about wanting to try to make opportunities for people because that's what we do
every day anyway, so we want to give it to anybody and everybody.
Taylor Cummings [39:56]
Well, thank you. You’re doing a fabulous job and thank you for all the work that you do.
Keith Whitfield [39:59]
Thank you. And we need to then cut off right there for Taylor because- she might say that
something else happened.
Taylor Cummings [40:07]
No – I really love it here. I love it. My program is exceptional. I came here because of the
research. Dr. Hilpert is my advisor. I do complex systems. So I love it. I'm having the time of my
life here. Everyone, they get me. They support me. And I'm involved in a lot of different things;
The Nevada COVID Recovery Project wasn't like my research interest. But it speaks to my
understanding of the way I see the world, and just how to ensure an equitable recovery for all
people, and it allows me to do that. And so I'm grateful to be here and I love it here, so-
Keith Whitfield [40:41]
Well, we're glad to have you.
Taylor Cummings [40:42]
Yes. Thank you very much.
Kelliann Beavers [40:45]
Thank you again so much, President Whitfield. I hope you have a lovely afternoon. And again,
we appreciate all the insights you shared. I will send over a transcript, as soon as we have one, so
you can take a look at it.
Keith Whitfield [40:57]
That sounds good. All right. Take care. Have a good day.
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Kelliann Beavers [40:58]
You too.
Keith Whitfield [40:59]
Bye-bye.
Taylor Cummings [41:03]
That was cool.
End of audio: 41:07
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