The senate of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, Reno met at the March 6 meeting and discussed the comments made about transgender people at the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Board of Regent’s March 1 quarterly meeting by regent Patrick Boylan.
Other senate discussions centered on the current president of ASUN – Boris Guerra – and his lack of physical attendance to the regent meeting, the new resolution presented by Taylor Limbacher – the senator for the School of Social Work to promote equity – inclusion and integrity for her college and an update from the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX.
ASUN president, regent controversy
At the March 1 board of regents meeting, Boylan made comments about transgender athletes asking one of the athletic directors if their system had “men masquerading as women” in sports or if any of the female athletes were getting “hurt” in these instances.
The comments sparked ASUN and Brian Sandoval to respond, however other public comments from ASUN officials specifically brought up the fact that the president of ASUN was not in attendance at this meeting. Under the office of the president’s duties, it is listed on the first line of the Statues of the Associated Students that the president attends all NSHE Board of Regents Meetings.
Individuals were upset that Guerra did not attend in-person, on Zoom or send a proxy and that no one was there on behalf of UNR students to speak against Boylan’s remarks.
“Our representative was not there in person to be the voice of our students,” Brayden Taeubel, the chief justice of ASUN said. “Students have come to me and expressed their anger at this situation.”
Nathan Noble, the senior associate justice for the judicial council of ASUN, said he co-authored a piece of legislation when he was a senator. The piece was in collaboration with Jefrin Jojan, current senator for the College of Engineering, against Boylan for making previously racist remarks. He gave public comments condemning Boylan’s comments, along with the president’s absence.
“I was dismayed to learn that not only was there no pushback but that our own president was not even there to give answer to these heinous remarks,” Noble said. “It is the first duty of the president to attend all meetings of the Board of Regents … Being a representative to that is a serious obligation, an obligation that has been shirked, an obligation that has been ignored.”
Noble said he follows Guerra on Instagram and claimed he had been posting about being at a concert the day of the meeting. He finished his public comment by urging the senators to hold their leaders, including regents and the ASUN president, accountable.
Guerra, during his report to the table, discussed his side of the story regarding the regents meeting. Guerra said he had a prior trip and a concert planned before the regents meetings were scheduled and he tried to send a proxy but the costs were not feasible and would have been a burden on the students to pay for this. He also added that the concert was during the evening and he was able to attend the meeting still via livestream during the day.
Joel Martin, senator for the College of Liberal Arts, said the livestream was not an interactive interface.
Guerra said he didn’t want to join the Zoom and cut in and out due to service issues, and possibly interrupt the meeting, so he attended on the livestream.
Hannah Alquiza, vice president of the association, added that she was asked to be proxy but that she doesn’t have the funds for a trip to attend the regents meeting, so she could not attend.
Martin asked why Alquiza couldn’t attend via Zoom and Alquiza said she and the president didn’t discuss this because he would be attending via livestream.
S.R. 91: A Resolution to Promote Equity, Inclusion, and Integrity in the School of Social Work
Limbacher’s resolution aims to encourage the School of Social Work to restructure the program by accommodating for the needs of non-traditional and diverse students to ensure equal access and support for all social work students.
The resolution also asks the School of Social Work to revise its communication standards to be in compliance with the university’s code of ethics, enhance the integrity of the program and continue to prevent miscommunication in the future.
“It is imperative that these changes be made to ensure that future cohorts are not let down by the School of Social Work,” the resolution says.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, five people gave lengthy public comments to encourage the senate to pass this resolution.
“I would be remiss if I did not speak on the fact that our program is growing and changing, which I am grateful for,” one public commenter in the School of Social Work said. “However, I am not grateful for feeling like an unwilling lab rat.”
Shelby Kramer, a student in the School of Social Work, told the table that she carries a full-time workload and is also a full-time student. She said these new changes to her college have created a load of stress for her.
“Let me paint you a picture: Imagine kicking off your semester with a game plan, ready to tackle your classes, balance work, life and school, only to find out, a month in, that the rules of the game have changed,” Kramer said. “Suddenly, assignments, projects, expectations, even the structure of your classes have shifted. This isn’t just about adapting to a challenge. It’s about being asked to hit a moving target without any warning.”
Kramer is now a year behind where she expected to be due to the changes to the department and issues with class availability and advising at the university.
When presenting the piece, Limbacher said undergraduate social work students are required to put in 225 hours at an unpaid internship per the graduation requirements. A new class curriculum for “SW 427: Social Work Methods with Organizations, Communities, and Legislatures” was presented in spring 2024, adding a time log requirement of 75 hours and increasing the total hours from 225 to 300. She said the time log requirement was not communicated until Feb. 16.
She said this course material revolves around campaigning for a social issue, which is doable if they were notified more than a semester in advance. The increased workload has created intense stress among social work students. She noted non-traditional students, specifically, struggle greatly with this as they often don’t have the time to dedicate extra hours to their classes, due to already working full-time jobs to support themselves.
Limbacher wrote that students brought their concerns to their professors, but the response from the School of Social Work was simply that the students would “get through it,” rather than offering change or help to the students.
She noted that the School of Social Work students feel significant disrespect from the university and their college, due to their lack of communication and the dismissal of student voices.
The resolution was passed with a majority by the senate table.
Title IX update
Zeva Edmonson, the director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX gave an update, saying her office is doing very well.
The office has hired a sixth investigator, compared to just the three that were there when she started. She said a new position has opened named as a ‘prevention education specialist’ who is around to talk to the community and do tabling events.
She said they are getting the website working, continuing to update the dashboard every month and talking with ASUN officials about the student advisory board.
Edmonson added she thinks Boylan’s comments are problematic and that her office is concerned about these.
Jojan, senator for the College of Engineering, urged Edmonson to stay and answer questions about this update and asked questions specifically about the Fan case.
“Many students and faculty were telling me [Fan’s termination] was incredibly disappointing,” Jojan said. “The gist of that was they were saying if this case, [one] that gets so much attention and so much coverage and the university firing the person who filed a complaint, how can they file a complaint? How can they be confident an investigation is going to be carried out? What would you say to reassure those people?”
Edmonson said she cannot talk about cases and that her office is not in charge of the sanctions and this is out of her purview, and she asks that people just try and trust the process.
Jojan tried to continue to ask questions, but Edmonson reiterated that she had to go and therefore could not stay.
Tori Beaulac, a senator for the College of Science, and other senators looked disappointed at Edmonson’s leave, some wanting to ask more questions.
Nominations and hirings
Anna Barrus and Naomi Tecson were nominated and sworn into their positions to the office of programmer for the Department of Programming.
Max Kiker ran for the vacant College of Business seat, but was not voted in. The vote was unanimously ‘no’.
It should be noted that when the speaker left the table to tell Kiker, the senators were heard talking and laughing. Mark Meiszburger, the speaker pro tempore, had to ask the table to not openly discuss amongst themselves and to stay respectful. The secretary also reminded the table they were being recorded on the public record.
Jaedyn Young can be reached at jaedynyoung@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @jaedyn_young3.
