SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO SINCE 1893
FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES $1.00 EACH
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
VOLUME 126, ISSUE 5
“Hustlers” deserves attention See A&E page A4
OPINION Jayme Sileo/Nevada Sagebrush
Julie A. Del Giorno gives a presentation on the 2019 Campus Climate Survey results on Wednesday, Sept. 18. The university hosted two separate forums to allow students, faculty, staff and community members to attend the event.
University releases Campus Climate Survey results By Olivia Ali The University of Nevada, Reno, released the results of the 2019 Campus Climate Survey on Wednesday, Sept. 18. The university hosted two separate forums to allow faculty, staff, students and community members to ask questions regarding the survey results. All findings of the survey can also be found in the Executive Summary. The university contracted with Rankin & Associates Consulting to lead the survey. “Rankin & Associates Consulting is a nationally recognized leader in institutional evaluation,” the university wrote on the survey’s official website. “They have conducted more than 190 campus climate assessment projects over the last 20 years. A team from Rankin & Associates Consulting will coordinate with a working group comprised of students, staff and faculty from the University to develop and implement
the assessment.”
The respondents 6,415 surveys were submitted. 27 percent of the total campus participated, which fell just three percent shy of the 30 percent response rate goal. According to the Executive Summary, the participants by status included: 53% (n = 3,389) of the sample were Undergraduate Students representing 22% of the total undergraduate student population; 12% (n = 794) of the sample were Graduate/Professional Students representing 23% of the total graduate/professional student population; 12% (n = 738) of the sample were Academic Faculty/ Postdoctoral Scholar/Research Scientist/Librarian members representing 36% of the total academic faculty/postdoctoral scholar/ research scientist/librarian members population; 12% (n = 781) of the sample were Administrative Faculty/Executive-level Administrative Faculty representing 70% of the total administrative faculty/executive-level
administrative faculty population; 11% (n = 713) of the sample were Classified Staff representing 67% of the total classified staff population.
Limitations R&A identified two limitations in the survey that may have inf luenced results. First, respondents “self selected” to complete the survey. “This type of bias can occur when an individual’s decision to participate is correlated with experiences and concerns being measured by the study, causing a type of non-representativeness known as selection bias,” R&A said in the Executive Summary. R&A also warned that less than a 30 percent response rate should raise caution as it is not as strong of a response. In addition to status, R&A provided that 60 percent of respondents were women, 37.5 were men and 2.6 were trans-spectrum or did not answer.
Defining climate R&A defined climate as
Students participate in the Campus Climate Strike
the current attitudes and behaviors of faculty, staff, admin and students as well as institutional policies and procedures which inf luence the level of respect for individual needs, abilities and potential.
The findings According to the Executive Summary, the findings at the university were consistent with other higher education institutions that did similar surveys with R&A.
The second Global Climate Change Summit— an event hosted by the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno—is being held Monday, Sept. 23, at the Joe Crowley Student Union. The event provides students, faculty and the general public an opportunity to network and engage with industry experts and panelists, as well as other summit attendees. The summit features a student poster competition, which gives any Nevada System of Higher Education student the opportunity to present their research and efforts regarding climate change adaptation, mitigation and analysis. Members of the public and faculty are charged a $75 entry fee to the conference, and students of the Nevada System of Higher Education will be charged a $15 entry fee. The summit was first proposed in 2017 by economics graduate research assistant, Angelo
the UNR event, explains that although individual action is imperative to the movement, it won’t be enough. “Unfortunately, on the individual level, we’re just not going to cut it,” Lufrano said. “So, really, it’s about getting our elected leaders and our nations to start making meaningful change, because this is a global issue—and we need to start making it a global issue.” Michelle Baker can be reached at tkjohnson@ sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush
Nevada’s special team’s success has been key to football’s 3-1 start See SPORTS page A7
College of Business hosts second annual Global Climate Change Summit
Students, faculty and staff gathered in front of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center at the University of Nevada, Reno, on Friday, Sept. 20 as part of the Worldwide Climate Strike to demand action in the fight against climate change. Activists, volunteers and students, including 130 students from Truckee, Calif., came to protest. Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, has been noted as a major voice of these strikes, motivating the youth across the globe to become activists themselves. Marisol Pulido, an environmental science major at the university, explained she was inspired by Thunberg to protest for the first time at the Climate Strike. “I want to be a part of the global climate strike—it’s happening all over the world, and I want to be a part of that,” Pulido stated. Other students like Nicolas England voiced they want to spread their enthusiasm for climate action that they found in Thunberg. The climate
strikes stress the urgency needed to combat climate change. The strike demands that without immediate action, the impacts will not only affect this generation, but the ones that follow. “I want to inspire other people; I want to inspire change. I kind of would like to have kids, I want that world to be livable too,” England stated. The climate strikes took place in over 150 countries around the world, just before the United Nations emergency climate summit. Stallar Lufrano, the organizer of
SPORTS
See SURVEY page A2
By Matt Cotter
Michelle Baker/Nevada Sagebrush
See OPINION page A6
Overall campus climate According to R&A, the average percentage of people who found the campus climate comfortable in studies at other universities was between 70 and 80 percent. 71 percent of respondents said they felt “very comfortable” or “comfortable” with campus climate at the university. However, results did find that people who identified with any of the following categories were significantly less comfortable with the campus climate: women, black/African American,
By Michelle Baker
Community members protest outside the Knowledge Center on Friday, Sept. 20. The Global Climate Strike was a worldwide event to demand for government action for the environment.
White supremacy should make you mad
Sisante, as an event where experts in various fields would collaborate and facilitate a conversation to educate the community about the various avenues for solving the issue of climate change. The conference is held every two years, allowing time for the College of Business to come up with relevant topics and panels each year. At this year’s summit, there will be three panels dealing with specific topics regarding climate change, both locally and universally. Panel One will be focused on climate change in Nevada, and will feature research faculty from the University of Nevada, Reno, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Desert Research Institute. They will apply their knowledge of climate change science to examine how it directly impacts Nevada. Panel Two features representatives of local and state governments in Nevada who will examine what the public sector can do to address climate change. This includes using policies such as regulations
or incentive approaches. Panel Three will feature industry experts and leaders from the private sector from Nevada who will explain the strategies they employ to mitigate climate change impacts on their business models, or adapt to these impacts by adjusting said models. Frederick A. Steinmann, an assistant research professor at the College of Business who also engages in community outreach, explained the philosophy of why the college chose to put on the event. “We try to leverage our expertise and our knowledge and our specific disciplines with the knowledge and expertise of individuals in other disciplines to really kind of present a holistic picture, and in this case one focused on climate change,” Steinmann said. He believes while the Global Climate Change Summit is the college’s focus at the moment, he hopes it can produce some smaller events and forums regarding climate change. He wants to eventually See CLIMATE page A2