The inside scoop on the people and projects that support UNLV

In this issue:

• Business Affairs Bulletin 100th Edition
• Message from Musa Pam, Associate Vice President of Facilities Management
• Grant Helps Rebel Recycling Expand Services to Campus Neighborhoods
• Department Highlight: Shipping & Receiving
• NSHE Financial Wellness Week Registration
• Spotlight on Service
• Updating Your Digital Literacy
• New Hires
• Promotions 
• Anniversaries 
• Dates to Remember

Business Affairs Bulletin 100th Edition

The Business Affairs communication team is excited to present the 100th edition of the Business Affairs Bulletin (BAB)! Today’s newsletter is a significant milestone in the division’s continual commitment to providing dynamic content that keeps you engaged, connected, and informed. We are so very proud.

Since 2019, we’ve featured articles that shine a light on the work of our Business Affairs departments and team members. We appreciate everyone who has assisted with story ideas or graciously agreed to be featured in an article. You make this newsletter a success. Last year, the BAB had an average open rate of 70% - our highest open rate yet! Thank you to everyone for reading. We look forward to the next 100 editions. 

If you have ideas and/or suggestions for story content, send them to Heather Ortiz. 

The Business Affairs Communication Team

Heather Ortiz, Rasheda Abdullah Hairston, Chanelle Hayes, and Shi-Lynn Campbell

Message from Musa Pam, Associate Vice President of Facilities Management

Dear colleagues,

As April gets underway, we welcome Earth Month with optimism and recognize the urgent need to address climate change and protect our home. Last fall, we kicked off the Rebel CAP climate action planning process making UNLV the first NSHE institution to do so. 

We sought feedback from the university community through an ideas assessment survey that received a myriad of suggestions. Each idea, no matter how broad or narrow in scope, was shared with our working groups focused on:

• Academics & Research
• Buildings & Energy
• Green Procurement and Policies
• Stewardship and Climate Justice
• Sustainable Transportation
• Waste Management
• Water Resource Management

These working groups used the feedback to help inform robust lists of recommendations that were published earlier this year. Then, we once again sought feedback from the university community. We distributed a second survey to capture community support, feedback, and additional recommendations. We received over 150 responses, the highest number that our consultants at Brailsford & Dunlavey have ever seen! The survey results were sent back to the working groups for further consideration. We anticipate sharing the final Rebel CAP in Fall 2024. 

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the Rebel CAP working groups for their contributions and dedication to sustainability at UNLV and the desert southwest. You can monitor our progress on the Rebel CAP webpage.

Let’s challenge ourselves this Earth Month to embrace sustainable practices and create climate solutions in the face of the existential crisis that is posed by the rapid changes in our climate. 



I urge you to get involved with sustainability on campus and at home. Here are a few tips:

• Conserve more water
• Promptly report or fix leaks in your residence or on campus
• Remove grass from your yard 
• Fact: Since 1998, UNLV has reduced landscape water usage by 25% by converting over 1 million square feet of turf areas to xeriscape that uses native desert vegetation and rocks
• Reduce energy consumption
• Turn off lights when not in use
• Consider renewable energy sources 
• Fact: UNLV solar panels generate the equivalent of 191,121 cell phone charges daily
• Support sustainable transportation
• Organize or join a carpool
• Use energy-efficient modes of transportation 
• Fact: UNLV campuses have 17 electric vehicle stations with the capacity for charging 34 vehicles simultaneously with plans for more chargers in the future. Lockers and stands are also available for the safe storage of bikes/scooters.
• Recycle
• Recycling is available in most campus buildings
• Rebel Recycling has a Drive Up and Drop Off service that is open to the public and available 24/7
• Fact: Tara Pike, UNLV’s recycling manager and sustainability coordinator, has worked for more than 30 years to create a culture of caring for our environment and its inhabitants. The Rebel Recycling program is stronger than ever and is one of the major community-facing services that Business Affairs offers to our neighbors thanks to the hard work of Tara’s Rebel Recycling team.

Go Rebels… Go Scarlet & Gray… Go Green 🌱!

Grant Helps Rebel Recycling Expand Services to Campus Neighborhoods

“The Rebel Recycling program — which provides the campus with comprehensive waste reduction recycling, and resource management — recently received critical funding from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) to revitalize its longstanding Drive Up and Drop Off (DUDO) community recycling program.”

Read the full story in the UNLV News Center.

Department Highlight: Shipping & Receiving

The Shipping & Receiving department will not let you box them in. This small but mighty team works diligently to keep the flow of mailed items running smoothly. “Our job is to facilitate the safe and efficient delivery of shipping in and out of campus,” says Andrew Erickson, supply technician 4. While this description of their daily duties is very straightforward, their roles require them to wear many hats. “We are, at times, package investigators,” says Brandon McKinley, interim Shipping & Receiving supervisor 1. The shipping sleuths research packages to determine the requestor, contents, and time sensitivity. Their investigative skills are always being tested and refined, due to the high volumes of packages they receive. 

How does this five-person team get it done? Collaboration. When a package arrives without a complete address or origin details, the Purchasing department is there to help the team identify packages and recipients through purchase orders and vendor verification. All electronics (e.g. cell phones, tablets, card readers) are tagged by Property Control and then delivered to the Office of Information Technology (OIT) for setup before routing the items to their new owners. Since these items are essential to conducting business, Shipping & Receiving communicates with Property Control almost daily. Some of the packages they receive can be fragile, heat/cold sensitive, or dangerous. As an R1 research institution, our labs and researchers frequently receive and ship radioactive or hazardous materials. Hazardous packages are identified and retained until a Risk Management & Safety (RMS) representative conducts a safety inspection. RMS has also provided hazmat training for the team to safeguard against exposure or mishandling. “We have to know what we’re receiving. The professors and researchers rely on us to be the experts on these materials,” says Brandon. 

The team’s expertise is always expanding. After the shutdown due to the pandemic, many teams adopted a hybrid or remote working schedule, making it more difficult to unite incoming packages with their recipients. The team is preparing an Informed Delivery system to resolve this issue. “Informed Delivery will give us and the intended recipient the ability to know when certain packages, such as hazardous materials and computers, are due to arrive,” says Brandon. The team hopes this will help avoid delays. Some delays, however, cannot be avoided. In February, due to the San Francisco 49ers holding practice on campus, the university was flagged as a Super Bowl facility subjected to increased security measures. For several weeks, all packages into the university were rerouted for inspection by the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) before delivery. This resulted in packages touching down after a one-day delay. 

Andrew Erickson, Brandon McKinley, Greg Fernandez, Hayden Rickert, and Rodney Woodall are the guardians of the gate when it comes to the items we ship and receive as a university. To further understand the scope of their work, here are some of their stats:

• Average packages received per day: 300
• Average packages queued for delivery per day: 200
• Average packages shipped per day: 15
• Most packages handled in one day (2024): 1,203 (3/4/2024)
• Heaviest item: 1,000 lb pallets
• Strangest item: Sheep eyeballs

The small but mighty unit relies on each other to make innovative, on-the-spot decisions to get the job done. When asked what is a little-known fact about the Shipping & Receiving department, Brandon replied, “Do they even know we exist?” If they didn’t, they do now. The Shipping & Receiving team is a hard-working unit, keeping the stream of packages moving efficiently throughout campus. 

NSHE Financial Wellness Week Registration

NSHE and TIAA will host a virtual financial wellness week April 8-12.

The empowering lineup can help you:

• Understand your whole financial picture. Get expert advice from representatives from NSHE, TIAA, Social Security, Nevada PERS, and ComPsych, UNLV’s Employee Assistance Program provider.
• Learn more about your options. Learn about the Social Security, Medicare, and NSHE Retirement Plan benefits you can expect now and in the future.
• Manage your assets. Participate in one-on-one advice sessions with a TIAA financial consultant to develop and execute your personalized plan.

Register now via the online session schedule. If you have any questions, contact the benefits team at hrbenefits@unlv.edu.

Spotlight on Service

In October 2023, we distributed our annual Business Affairs customer service survey. Many of our campus colleagues replied to the survey with notes of praise for our hard-working teams. See below for some highlights for Shipping & Receiving. 

“Our center receives a lot of packages during each semester for our merchandise shop and labs. Whenever we call to find out about an item, they are always so helpful and most of the time bring it over the same day or the next.”

“The people at Shipping & Receiving are especially great!”

“This group is very proactive and has been solid with their service for many years.”

“They are always fast and very friendly.”

Upgrading Your Digital Literacy

Google Workspace has introduced voice messages on Chat mobile (with web support coming soon). Sending a voice message instead of typing enables users to save time, convey more information, and emphasize important details. To learn more about Chat voice messaging, visit the Google Workspace website.

New Hires

• Aaron Bishop, Facilities Management 
• Amanda Rodriguez, Parking and Transportation Services
• Emanuel Flores Velazquez, Delivery Services
• Emily Kibble, Facilities Management 
• Erika Soriano, Facilities Management 
• Marjala Mims, Risk Management & Safety
• Yash Mutra, Administration Technology Services

Promotions

• Alexander Goodwin, Facilities Management 
• Aminata Jefferson, Facilities Management 
• Angel Chacon, Facilities Management 
• Armando Campos, Facilities Management 
• Cory Martin, Facilities Management 
• Jayce White, Facilities Management 
• Jessica Rizo, Facilities Management 
• John Cupo, Facilities Management 
• Madison Thompson, Facilities Management 
• Ricardo Garcia, Facilities Management 
• Sami Haynes, Facilities Management

Anniversaries

Congratulations to the Business Affairs employees celebrating work anniversaries in April! Years of service have been determined using the UNLV hire date - first employment date without any breaks in service here at UNLV regardless of job type or full-time status.

If you notice an error in your listing, contact Heather Ortiz.

• Kathy Adams, 35 years
• Bonita Johnson, 27 years
• Rhonda Dale, 22 years
• Michael Lawrence, 21 years
• Shana Rivers, 21 years
• Joseph Fernane, 18 years
• Craig Topple, 14 years
• Janine Nakazone, 12 years
• Daniel Green, 9 years
• Jaynette Hayes, 9 years
• Stephen Valine, 8 years
• Al'lesha Moore, 6 years
• J.R. Myers, 6 years
• Paul Capitini, 6 years
• Bridget Hahn, 5 years
• Heather Ortiz, 5 years
• Kim Seifert, 5 years
• Tosho Genkov, 5 years
• Gregory Fernandez, 4 years
• Carlos Perez, 2 years
• Chanelle Hayes, 2 years
• Esteban Solorio, 2 years
• La'Shay Lang, 2 years
• Michael Archibald, 2 years
• Polyn Christa Ondevilla, 2 years
• Sarah Sterling, 2 years
• Shi-Lynn Campbell, 2 years
• Simone Rice, 2 years
• Steven Valdez, 2 years
• Andrea Gonzalez, 1 year
• Beiminet Mekonnen, 1 year
• Carmen Magbual, 1 year
• Giuseppe Catalano, 1 year
• Jeffrey Berkbigler, 1 year
• Jeffrey Deconinck, 1 year
• Karina Felizardo, 1 year
• Lina Sundstrom, 1 year
• Madison Masching, 1 year
• Ronald Tabick, 1 year

Dates to Remember

• April: Earth Month
• April 15: All-Hands Meeting
• April 15: Tax Day
• April 22: Earth Day
• April 22 - 30: Passover
• April 25: Take Your Child to Work Day