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Survey Shows UNLV Hotel College Faculty Unhappy

A new survey shows that faculty at UNLV's College of Hotel Administration are not happy with the department.
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A new survey shows that faculty at UNLV's College of Hotel Administration are not happy with the department.

Faculty at UNLV's hospitality school are unhappy.

That's the takeaway from a survey of faculty in UNLV’s Harrah College of Hotel Administration.

Roughly one-third of comments in the survey criticized the college's dean, Stowe Showalter, for his leadership.

A full 45 percent of the faculty surveyed said they either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement they were happy to work at the college. Less than half agree with the statement that they "belong at the college."

Ana Ley, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has covered the issues at the school. 

"The impression that I get is that the school has taken this very seriously and that UNLV administration have taken this very seriously," Ley told KNPR's State of Nevada.

Ley said the dean and provost have talked to faculty and staff to try to get to the bottom of their concerns.

Budget cuts during the economic downturn forced the university to make some changes at the college, including cutting departments and department chairs. 

Ley said that is just one of the reasons for the poor survey numbers.

"There are a lot of people upset at the school and the dean and the administration," she said. "They're also upset about the disbanding of their departments a few years ago. It runs the gambit."

Despite the discontent, Ley doesn't believe it is on the radar of top executives in the hotel-casino industry.

"I don't know that concerns that faculty and administration have necessarily, at least from my conversations, are really something that they worry about," Ley said.

The administration is expected to dig deeper in the problem and come up with solutions when classes get back into full swing in a few weeks.

Ana Ley, Las Vegas Review-Journal

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Casey Morell is the coordinating producer of Nevada Public Radio's flagship broadcast State of Nevada and one of the station's midday newscast announcers. (He's also been interviewed by Jimmy Fallon, whatever that's worth.)