The tragic events at UNLV on Wednesday hit very close to home. I was dean of the College of Business at UNLV for five years before coming to UCF. My son, Tyler, graduated a Rebel and works on campus. We have also sent some UCF PhD students to work in Nevada. One of them was Patricia Navarro-Velez who earned her PhD from our Dixon School of Accounting and was an assistant professor at UNLV. She was one of the victims of this senseless violence. My colleagues in the Dixon School remember her as a wonderful person who touched the lives of many. She leaves behind a husband and four children. Another victim was my colleague Jerry Chang, a great guy, gentle soul and long-time UNLV faculty member. The police have yet to release the third name, but I suspect it is another colleague of mine.
I spent most of Wednesday night connecting with old colleagues and remembering my years at UNLV. UCF and UNLV are very similar institutions. They were born about the same time, have similar student populations and have a strong commitment to access and upward social mobility for students. Much of what I have learned about being a good dean, I learned at UNLV. There are a lot of really great people there.
It has been a rough couple of weeks. Last week we celebrated the life of Wally Milon, a professor in our economics department who passed away just before Thanksgiving. These two events have given me a lot of time to think about the legacies of my colleagues and someday my own. As faculty, we live pretty privileged lives—we get to pursue our passions in the name of discovery and making the world a better place. In the process, we earn a bit of immortality through the ideas we introduce to people through our writings and the students’ lives we enrich through our teaching.
The best way we can honor our colleagues who have passed is to take a moment to remember something they taught us. Wally taught me the power of asking the right question at the right time. Jerry taught me that patience (usually) pays off—I am still working on this. My late UNLV colleague Nassar taught me the difference between being a nice guy and being a good guy. He was the first colleague I thought of last night when UNLV hit the news.
If you want to show solidarity with and support for UNLV, remember what a faculty member taught you and smile—it’s what they lived for.
Paul Jarley, Dean 