New UNLV liberal arts dean vows to boost faculty diversity

The newly picked dean of UNLV’s College of Liberal Arts — the university’s biggest academic division — has vowed to help create a more diverse staff to mirror the school’s minority-heavy student population.

Chris Heavey — who serves as the university’s vice provost for undergraduate education — will drop that role and begin the new administrative job July 1, UNLV announced Monday. He’ll make an annual salary of $205,000, a 39 percent raise from his current earnings.

Heavey, 53, said he wants to foster a more inclusive environment at the liberal arts college to better serve the university’s diverse student body. More than half of all undergraduates at the university report being part of a racial or ethnic minority. The school’s Office of Diversity Initiatives, meanwhile, reported that in 2014 faculty at the liberal arts college was 81 percent white.

“We have to make sure we have a culture where diverse faculty feel valued and supported,” Heavey said. “The first step in diversifying faculty is retaining the diverse faculty that we have.”

The school has been working on hiring more professors of color since at least 2014. Amid those efforts, a committee formed last year began tackling sweeping recommendations made by an outside reviewer who said in a March 2015 report that the school “has not significantly invested in building a strategic infrastructure that can leverage (its) diversity.” The school’s shortage of minority professors came under fire during a November rally led by students and faculty members who confronted administrators with a litany of demands aimed at bolstering UNLV’s multiculturalism efforts.

Heavey is a longtime psychology professor and former associate dean at the college, which is home to 11 departments, 160 faculty members and nearly 3,400 students that make up about 12 percent of UNLV’s student body.

“One of the reasons this position was so attractive to me is that deans are closer to faculty and closer to students,” said Heavey, 53. “That’s where the real works happens. I plan to take all the things I learned at the vice provost level back to help support the college.”

Heavey will replace Chris Hudgins, who has served as the dean of the college since 2007 and is retiring from UNLV in December. Hudgins spent 40 years at UNLV as a professor and administrator, including two stints as chair of the English department.

Born in Illinois and raised in California, Heavey earned an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a graduate degree from UCLA. His psychology career initially focused on marital communications and gender differences. His work has also focused on the experiences of people who suffer from mental illnesses, including depression, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress syndrome.

“As a teacher, researcher, and administrator, Chris has the respect of his students and colleagues on campus and in the community,” Acting UNLV Provost Nancy Rapoport said in a prepared statement. “He has a deep understanding of all aspects of the college and the right mix of experience and leadership.”

UNLV officials credit Heavey for his “instrumental” role in a recent overhaul of the university’s general education curriculum. He has taught at UNLV for the past 20 years.

“Our faculty are addressing fundamental questions of importance to society,” Heavey said.

Contact Ana Ley at aley@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Find her on Twitter @la__ley.