UNLV President Marta Meana talks about racist threats during State of the University Address

A day meant to celebrate the yearly milestones of UNLV took a somber turn on Wednesday after a racist threatening message was discovered on campus.

Although the shooting threat, which intended to target African American students and supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, was not deemed credible by the FBI and local law enforcement. Acting UNLV President Marta Meana said at the annual “State of the University Address” that the threats were disheartening and distressing to see.

The university remained open for the day, but Meana made attendance optional and many professors simply choosing to cancel classes for the day, so it was almost empty.

“UNLV is comprised of students who stand at the opposite of that vitriol,” Meana said. “We cannot let the haters define or control us.”

This message is one of many in a disturbing trend of hate speech at UNLV and other schools in Nevada. Incidents range from the former UNLV Turning Point USA president using racial slurs, to a racist threat discovered at a black sorority, and white supremacists hate groups recruiting at UNR, two years after a UNR student was identified at the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally.

UNLV’s Residence Hall Association is calling on Meana to formally apologize for not speaking out to the students sooner and to retain the security staff in the residential areas.

Intentional or otherwise, Meana’s speech segued into core tenants of UNLV’S continued success: its diversity and inclusiveness.

For the first time in the university’s history, 31,000 students were enrolled in the school with more than 4,400 freshmen.

Eighty-three percent of them are Nevada residents. Undergraduate minority enrollment increased by 5 percent over the last fall as well and accounts for nearly 68 percent of undergrads enrolls at the school.

With UNLV being the most diverse campus in the country, Meana said that being a gate opener rather than a gatekeeper for people of various backgrounds has fed into the success of the school.

“Openness is a threat to those who would want to shrink our world,” Meana said. “We need to remember that we vastly outnumber them.

UNLV’s top accomplishment was being designated by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as an “R1” or a “Very High Research Activity” university, making it one of 130 universities in the U.S. to achieve this. This places UNLV amongst one of the top 3% of research institutions in the country.

“It’s a testament to the collective effort of staff and students,” Meana said. “We are less than a century old. Only nine other schools our age and younger have maintained and earned this. But we have to fight to retain this every single day.”

As part of that effort to retain that status, UNLV’s programs and development have begun expanding rapidly and received high praise.

UNLV’s CyberSecurity Center at the College of Engineering was designated by the Department of Homeland Security and National Security Agency as a National Center of Academic Excellence. The school will begin development on its new Advanced Engineering Studies Building early next year.

And naturally, Meana could not let the address slide without making mention of the UNLV 34–29’s football victory over UNR last year, where the school took the Fremont Cannon.

“Did I mention that the cannon is red,” Meana said to enthusiastic applause.

It remains to be seen as to what Meana will say regarding the RHA letter, but Meana is still hopeful for the future of UNLV.

“We have so much to look forward to,” Meana said. “We are rebels and we can make anything happen.”