In 2011, when Brian Sandoval was in his first year as governor of Nevada, he led the creation of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. The purpose? To cultivate a diversified, innovative and sustainable economy coming out of the Great Recession, which caused the Silver State’s unemployment rate to swell to 14%.
The press conference to officially announce the initiative was held at a place then-Gov. Sandoval felt would play a key role in building a prosperous economy in Northern Nevada and across the state: the University of Nevada, Reno.
“I always thought, even back then, that economic diversification is inextricably intertwined with higher education and the university,” Sandoval said.
A decade later, Sandoval is even more invested in making sure UNR helps keep the state’s economic engine running on all cylinders. In September, the two-term governor, and UNR alum, was named the 17th president of the University of Nevada, Reno.
“I have a lot of optimism for the future,” Sandoval said. “It’s a privilege and honor being able to serve as the president of the university that has meant so much to me and this community and state.”
With that in mind, the NNBW caught up with Sandoval in a video interview to talk in depth about UNR’s role in the economy, how the university can enhance its profile and reel in top talent, and what opportunities are on the horizon in 2021 and beyond.
Brian Sandoval: In 2011, we had the creation of the Knowledge Fund, which created a fund of money that meant to be a catalyst for research on the university campuses. It was the creation of committees that included higher education with industry so that we could ensure that we developed the right curriculums and the right training programs.
A lot of times when we were recruiting companies, their first question was ‘where are we going to get our employees?’ And that’s where the universities and the community colleges, and K-12, all came into the conversation. For the University (of Nevada, Reno), we have a 140-plus-year university here that has very robust colleges — engineering, liberal arts, all different colleges. It's an R1 University. So, it really encouraged companies and gave them confidence as they came here to know that they have this university, as well as the community colleges’ resources, to draw their future employees.
Sandoval: As we move forward, we’re going to continue to improve our R1 status; we're going to strengthen our relationships with private industry. Pre-Christmas, I was out at Panasonic; I had conversations with Tesla; I just had a conversation with Google on how we can better partner with them. It brings a lot of opportunities and research and creates a lot of opportunities for students to do internships with those companies. I’m going to continue to be very aggressive in terms of my outreach to really educate the companies that are coming here as to what the opportunities are on this campus.
And, obviously, we're going to be very aggressive in attracting students and faculty and researchers here to provide the best experience not only for our students but for the community and private industry as well.
Q: How can you leverage your role at UNR to work with economic organizations, government agencies and businesses to bolster this area’s profile?
Sandoval: I'm really blessed in the sense that, first of all, I have a great love and passion for this region. I grew up here, I went to grade school here, I went to high school here, I went to the university here, and — with the exception of law school (at the Mortiz College of Law at Ohio State University) — I've spent my life here. And so, I am familiar with the region and the culture and the people that I've had the benefit of serving in all these different capacities and public service. I've been working with private industry and local governments and people — most importantly, people — my entire adult life, so that’s been extremely helpful.
And, as (UNR) president, I've already established a reputation and an ability to get things done. And that’s experience that I hope will bring to this university in terms of strengthening the relationship that we have with the community even more. This should be, and will be, a university town.
Sandoval: First and foremost, we're going to continue our core mission, which is to serve the students and serve the students in whatever environment that we're in. Prior to my arrival (in the fall), the university went to the HyFlex model, which is a combination of online and in-person, which many institutions didn’t do. We understand how important it is to have that on-campus experience for our students and have that face-to-face contact with faculty and staff. So, it really took a commitment on the part of the administration and the faculty and the staff and the students to continue in this model. We did that in the fall and we'll continue to do it in the spring so that we can maximize the experience that our students can have on campus.
We’re all optimistic and hopeful that if the vaccine is given that in the fall (2021) we’ll be able to operate in more of an on-campus experience. With regard to online, I think that’s going to be part of the new normal for universities to have a more robust online offering for students. We are in the midst of recruiting a new vice president of online education.
Now that students have the experience of online-learning, there may be some students who want either exclusively or a majority of their educational experience to be online. There will be those that want a combination, and there will be those that want to be on campus the whole time. I think that the marketplace of universities is going to be very competitive in that regard. UNR needs to be part of that marketplace and be able to have the offerings to students so they can get the tailored experience that they’re looking for.
Sandoval: Diversity, equity and inclusion are one of — if not my top — priorities with regard to our campus. It’s really important to me that our campus reflects the demographics of our community. That includes recruiting and retaining and graduating more students of color and backgrounds. It also includes attracting a more diverse faculty and staff as well. We’re working really hard in terms of doing that.
Just as important is having an environment on campus where everyone feels included and safe and respected and appreciated. There's a lot that has been done, but there's a lot of work to do. We do have a chief diversity officer who is working on these issues as well. There's a lot that we are doing and that we're going to continue to do and part of that includes making intentional investments in these areas. That's going to be a priority of mine as we make budget decisions to ensure that we’re investing so that we can be really successful in our diversity, equity and inclusion.
Sandoval: We’re looking forward to having fans in the seats. I know that a huge part of this community is to "Back the Pack," and everyone misses the opportunity to attend sporting events for men and women. First of all, it’s working toward getting back to that, and really reminding people that we have amazing student-athletes up here, and to come celebrate them and support them.
That can be a big a big economic driver for the community. You just have to look a couple years back when the (men’s) basketball team had all the success that it had. Lawlor (Events Center) was practically sold out for every game. It created a lot of enthusiasm in the community.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity.
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