The inside scoop on the people and projects that support UNLV

In this issue:

• Fiscal New Year
• Planning the Future of Engineering
• July Monthly Observances 
• Spotlight on Service
• Farewell: Kim Case-Nichols
• Upgrading Your Digital Literacy
• New Hires
• Promotions
• Anniversaries

Fiscal New Year

Hello colleagues, 

Fiscal year 2023 has come to a close and thanks to the hard work of many Business Affairs teams, it was a success. Together we completed an impressive number of transactions including: 

• Billed more than 76,000 student accounts
• Processed over 36,000 supplier invoices, more than 7,600 expense reports, and 19,000 plus accounting adjustments and manual journal entries
• Issued 6,400 plus purchase orders & 2,700 change orders 
• Supported 75,000 plus purchasing card transactions
• Reconciled over 66,000 bank statement lines

I recognize that achieving this while maintaining day-to-day operations is no easy feat. Thank you to everyone who went the extra mile to make “it” happen.

Financial Services teams also made service enhancements in fiscal year 2023 including: 

• Implementing a fully electronic solicitation process
• Adopting new Workday functionalities such as Discovery Boards and Worksheets to expand reporting capabilities
• Updating the Accounts Payable and Travel websites
• Expanding our use of TeamDynamix (TDX) for managing requests including the new Worktag business process
• Completing the initial transition from an NSHE-wide shared instance for our student account payment processing provider to a UNLV stand-alone instance which will open the door to implementation of new student account management features in the near future

Thank you to everyone for using your creativity and resourcefulness to continually improve our processes. We’re looking forward to soon welcoming students back to campus for the start of the academic year. Financial Services teams remain committed to making improvements to support our Top Tier 2.0 mission.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Planning the Future of Engineering

The new Advanced Engineering Building (AEB) will be an inspiration to aspiring engineers thanks to a dean with a vision and the guidance and expertise of the Planning and Construction (P&C) team. The 18-month project, which took nearly 10 years to plan, will conclude later this year with doors opening to the public at the start of the spring 2024 semester. P&C along with a diverse group of stakeholders, collaborated to identify engineering students’ research needs. They requested and received matching state funds from several state legislative sessions and the end result will be a beautiful building that will serve various engineering functions for the next 15 years. “We’re proud to announce that the AEB will be the first dedicated new research and academic building to open on the Maryland campus since 1987,” says David Frommer, associate vice president of planning, construction, and real estate. 

The Vision

Rama Venkat, professor/dean of the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering, proposed creating the AEB in 2014. After researching what made universities ranked in the top 100 for engineering unique, Dean Venkat envisioned elevating UNLV’s engineering program from a top 125 school into the top 100. “Schools within the top 100 had more space for their engineering college, labs for training, facilities for research, and room to support at least 25 more faculty members than we have now,” says Venkat. Since the Thomas T. Beam Engineering Complex was aging, Dean Venkat began to work with campus stakeholders to raise the profile of our engineering college by constructing a state-of-the-art building. 

Planning

“When Planning and Construction got involved in April of 2016, we began looking at current trends, case studies, and academic peers to determine what the Advanced Engineering Building could do for the university,” says Patrick Castellano, director of design and associate university architect, planning and construction. Patrick and the team spent dozens of hours in stakeholder meetings to ensure the finished product would align with Dean Venkat’s vision and the needs of the engineering college. Patrick worked with Nichole Staker and Ron Singer of P&C’s interior design team to design a truly unique addition to UNLV. The design portion of the AEB project was completed in 2018. Beyond briefly pausing during the pandemic, AEB’s construction has moved along without unforeseen delays. 

The Future

The new AEB features three floors, each serving a different purpose for students, faculty, and researchers. The first floor is dedicated to undergraduate training. There are open spaces where demonstrations can be given to an audience, and a collaborative makerspace open to the entire campus. The flexitorium (a flexible space that can be converted to fit the needs of the presenter), is the first of its kind on campus, holding 135 occupants. The second and third floors contain open labs. These multipurpose spaces can be converted to fit a range of engineering disciplines. “The Advanced Engineering Building will be used for water resources, environmental engineering, material engineering, biomedical engineering, advanced energy research, and dry labs where cyber security, electronics, robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and machine learning related research can take place,” says Dean Venkat. 

AEB will add a modern space to the Maryland campus’ academic mall. Three large LED array displays will be installed including an eye-catching 31.5 ft x 13 ft display on the outside of the building. Visitors and passersby will enjoy a welcoming, modern aesthetic that is both cutting-edge and practical. Most importantly, the AEB will give faculty, students, and researchers access to equipment and tools needed to further their research in ways that were previously unavailable at UNLV. “The Advanced Engineering Building will provide our students with top-of-the-line facilities to design, build, and test prototypes of many areas of importance to our nation,” says Dean Venkat. To learn more about the AEB, visit the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering webpage.

July Monthly Observances

Disability Pride Month

July is an important month for Americans living with disabilities, as Disability Pride Month commemorates the pasage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. It's a time for advocates for the disabled and individuals with disabilities, like delivery services administrative assistant, Shavonne Gramkow, to celebrate this landmark civil rights law and focus on destigmatizing people with disabilities. 

“Disability Pride Month is a great time for people to ask questions because many of us with visible and invisible disabilities are happy to discuss our lives,” says Shavonne. “Take the time to learn and be a voice of support not just during disability awareness month but also every day because living with disabilities can leave many people feeling alone and isolated.” 

For Shavonne and other individuals with disabilities, this observance is an opportunity to show that disabilities do not define who they are. Though it can make life difficult at times, having a disability can also shape one's pursuits and career paths.

“Much of my life has been a matter of advocacy pressing my wishes and desires against society's judgments,” says Shavonne. “I had to be an active voice in achieving my goals of a financially stable career proving myself against people's preconceived notions and biases.” 

Everyone can be an advocate for and supporter of people with disabilities, especially in the workplace, by: 

• Having an open mind
• Focusing on who people are and how they can fit into various aspects of life, both personally and at work
• Using your voice to advocate for the inclusion of disabled employees and candidates 
• Speaking up if something doesn't seem right or might make things difficult for a person with a disability 

Visit the Disability Resource Center to learn more about advocacy and support here at UNLV.

National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

Another important July observance is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Highlighting the unique mental health challenges racial and ethnic minority communities face in the United States, National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month is an opportunity for non-people of color to learn more about how to support disenfranchised ethnic and racial groups. 

Mental health is an umbrella term that includes a person’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being, affecting how one thinks, feels, and acts. The state of an individual’s mental health can also determine how they handle stress, relate to others, and make both simple and major choices.

It’s important for those seeking to support and/or advocate for minority mental health to understand minorities suffer from poor mental health due to:



• Discrimination
• Lack of access to quality mental health care services
• Cultural stigma surrounding mental health care
• Overall lack of awareness about mental health

Learn more about UNLV’s commitment to supporting racial and ethnic communities on campus through our diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Farewell: Kim Case-Nichols

Business Affairs honored Kim Case-Nichols with a farewell celebration to mark her 13 years of service to the UNLV community. We thank Kim for all she has done and wish her well on her new journey. A special thank you goes out to the Planning and Construction team for presenting Kim with a plaque and the Office of the Senior Vice President for organizing the event.

Spotlight on Service

Earlier this month, Systems Change Management launched the Workday@UNLV Team website, a Google Site that functions as a one-stop shop for teams in central units that provide Workday business process analytics, reporting, integrations, configuration, and technical and business process support through specific Workday functions. Here are some of the kudos the team received for their successful implementation:

"I have spent quite some time on the new site and I wanted to express how brilliant I think this is. I am looking forward to seeing this page reach its full potential. As a functional expert, I am so grateful to have a one-stop-shop bookmarked now."

"Using the website will likely generate ideas for how [my team] may want to use it for our internal processes."

Upgrading Your Digital Literacy

Google Workspace is adding a feature into Gmail that helps users find convenient 1:1 meeting times with others much quicker. This will help when scheduling time with colleagues, community partners, or people whose Google Calendars are not visible to you.

To learn more, visit the Google Workspace Blog.

New Hires

• Hassan Ali Almanameyeen, Facilities Management 
• Josue Angulo-Fuentes, Facilities Management 
• Ricardo Malan, Risk Management & Safety
• Trevor Gilbert, Facilities Management

Promotions

• Aaron Venzon, Facilities Management 
• Greg Kalbaugh, Risk Management & Safety
• Jeriah Felix, Risk Management & Safety
• Justin Garrison, Facilities Management 
• Kahaunani Hernandez, Financial Accounting
• Katie Benally, Financial Accounting
• Kimberlee Ornbaum, Cashiering and Student Accounts
• Leilani Brandes, Cashiering and Student Accounts
• Micah Magallanes, Risk Management & Safety
• Nicholas Carelli, Cashiering and Student Accounts
• Thomas Curtis, Facilities Management

Anniversaries

Congratulations to the Business Affairs employees celebrating work anniversaries in July! 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.