State lawmakers introduced a long-in-the-works bill Thursday that would significantly expand a film tax credit program aimed at bringing Hollywood to Las Vegas.

The Nevada Independent sat down with Whitfield to discuss some of the biggest issues facing UNLV — from the pandemic to land grant status to diversity and racism.

The Nevada Board of Regents unanimously approved the appointment of Keith Whitfield as UNLV’s newest president at a special meeting Thursday, providing a replacement for interim President Marta Meana and ending the two-year vacancy triggered by the sudden departure of former President Len Jessup in 2018.

UNLV President Marta Meana confirmed in a statement Tuesday night that the university was removing a statue of its mascot, known as “Hey Reb!,” from its pedestal outside the Tam Alumni Center on the university’s campus.

The Board of Regents approved a proposal for sweeping reductions Friday that would cut between $68 and $124 million from the Nevada System of Higher Education budget amid the most drastic crunch to hit state revenues since the 2008 financial crisis.

UNLV made up for nearly half of all spending by Nevada colleges and universities on buyouts in 2019, shelling out roughly $347,000 on just six buyouts over the last calendar year.

UNLV administrators announced Friday a $9 million donation from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, a Southern-California-based tribe that operates a large casino near San Bernardino, meant to spur the development of a number of new tribal gaming programs at the university’s Harrah College of Hospitality and Boyd School of Law.

Interim UNLV President Marta Meana will not seek a permanent appointment to the presidency, making the announcement to a group of university deans and other administrators at a regularly scheduled meeting late last month.

The UNLV School of Medicine announced Wednesday that Tulane University’s Dr. Marc J. Kahn would take over as the school’s dean on April 1. The addition comes following the movement of the school’s founding dean, Dr. Barbara Atkinson, to an advisory role late last year.

When Gov. Steve Sisolak announced more than $155 million in private funds for a centerpiece building at the UNLV Medical School last November, it was the end result of nearly a decade of negotiating over an edifice that had more than once been thrown into the waste bin.

Democratic presidential hopefuls pocketed more than half a million dollars in itemized contributions from Nevadans in the third quarter of the year as they prepare for a final push ahead of the early nominating contests in February.

In a letter sent to university administrators and acting President Marta Meana, UNLV’s Residence Hall Association (RHA) panned a decision to wait more than five days before releasing public information regarding the nature of a possible shooting threat to campus and demanded a formal apology from Meana.

Just days after a threatening message was found scrawled on the stall of a UNLV bathroom, acting UNLV President Marta Meana defended the role of universities as a bastion of free speech, telling a crowd during her annual State of the University address Wednesday that “openness is a threat to those who would want to shrink our world.”

The UNLV Faculty Senate voted to kill a proposed referendum Tuesday that would have recommended the Board of Regents extend the contract of interim UNLV President Marta Meana and postpone an ongoing search for a permanent replacement — a move that comes just days ahead of the first meeting Friday between the regents and the ad hoc presidential search committee. 

As tens of thousands of students flooded to college and university campuses across the state Monday for the first day of the new school year, many had yet to reckon with a new reality of college living — one that is defined in part by rapidly inflating costs that have fueled a national crisis of student debt. 

Those meetings and others held between Sisolak with high-powered lobbyists, legislators with major pending bills, federal government officials and a slew of well-known business leaders were revealed in a public records request submitted by The Nevada Independent for the governor’s calendar through the legislative session.

The Board of Regents unanimously approved two resolutions Friday that would allow the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to move forward with plans to finance two new buildings, including a revised plan to build a centerpiece building for the newly-established UNLV Medical School — a project so far mired in funding woes.