About Diversity
Unite Nurture Learn Voice
Diversity at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is conceptualized as a "community responsibility," therefore our diversity efforts are deliberatively expansive. They include, but are not limited to, examinations of race; color; ethnicity; Deafhood; geographic origin; immigration status; language; socioeconomic class; employment status; environmental concern (sustainability); sex; gender; gender identity and expression; family configuration; sexual orientation; physical, developmental, and psychological ability; Veteran's status; age and generation; religious, spiritual, faith-based, and secular belief; physical appearance; political affiliation; and, the exercise of rights secured by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
With a Carnegie ranking of "high research," diversity and excellence at UNLV are integrally linked — each requiring the other. Accordingly, the Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion works to ensure that educational and employment equity exists for all of its constituents through the provision of a dynamic range of outstanding access, support, development, research, and entrepreneurial initiatives.
Research on the educational benefits of diversity shows that all students who are educated in robustly diverse scholastic settings do better academically, are more likely to graduate in four years, and, upon graduation, are hired first, promoted faster, and earn more money sooner than peers who attend more racially and ethnically homogenous institutions. By building student, faculty, staff, and community constituents' skill for, and comfort with, meaningful engagement with individuals and groups from across the spectrum of rich human uniquenesses, UNLV and Las Vegas build capacity for the kind of professional excellence that the domestic and global multi- and plural-cultural workplace of the 21st century expects and necessitates.
Beyond the current economically driven diversity imperative, there exists a more far-reaching ethically driven one. By actively creating and sustaining a welcoming and affirming campus climate, we not only equip all members of the UNLV campus community — especially our students — to compete in society the way it is currently set up, but to change the world for the benefit of all. It is toward this end in particular that the work of the Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion is dedicated.