Premier: The Magazine of the UNLV Harrah Hotel College College of Hospitality Spring 2020 Premier: The Magazine of the UNLV Harrah College of Hospitality Matt Jacob Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/premier Part of the Hospitality Administration and Management Commons Repository Citation Jacob, M. (2020). Premier: The Magazine of the UNLV Harrah College of Hospitality. In Angela Ramsey; Caitlyn Lopez, 1-31. Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/premier/31 This Magazine is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Magazine in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Magazine has been accepted for inclusion in Premier: The Magazine of the UNLV Harrah Hotel College by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SPRING 2020 ospitality harrah college of h the magazine of the unlv A PROGRESSIVE NEW CURRICULUM PR0MISES MORE CHOICES FOR STUDENTS AND MORE TALENT FOR AN INDUSTRY EMBRACING CHANGE ALSO 01 AHEAD OF THE GAME 02 RICHES TO RAGS AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN 03 AND THE SURVEY SAYS ... In 46 This Issue 5 From the Dean 16 22 8 College News FEATURE FEATURE Changing Course Keeping Tradition Alive 36 Take It From Our Alumni 42 Beyond the Classroom 44 On the Job: Interns Report 55 Donor Honor Roll 26 34 IN GOOD TASTE CHECKING IN Serving Up Excellence Facing the Future of Technology [The college] has made it our mission to remain in step premier magazine with the industry SPRING 2020 by emulating A UNLV William F. Harrah College of Hospitality publication their commitment unlv.edu/hospitality to reinvention. Editor-in-Chief GLOBAL ADVISORY BOARD Angela Ramsey Dean Stowe Shoemaker would like Assistant Editor to thank the following volunteers for serving Caitlyn Lopez on the Dean’s Global Advisory Board: Designer Jeff Baldi, House Advantage Maureen Adamo Elizabeth Blau, Blau & Associates Photographers Cath Burns, Gaming Consultant Josh Hawkins, Lonnie Timmons III Andrew Cherng, Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. Contributing Writer/Editor Russ Dazzio, R&R Global Hospitality – Gaming Matt Jacob Paula Eylar-Lauzon, Boyd Gaming Corporation (retired) Other Contributors Carlos A. Fabbri, Sobel Westex From the Dean Dean Stowe Shoemaker Marc Falcone, MF Ventures Maggie Hausbeck Douglas Fryett, Fryett Consulting Group The winds of change are blowing strong in both Jeffrie Jones Robert Grimes, ConStrata Tech Consulting the hospitality industry and academia Alexandra Liebman David Hanlon, Executive Hospitality Partners, LLC Craig Granger (graphics) Ann Hoff, MGM Resorts International Connie Palen (photography) Thomas A. Jingoli, Konami Gaming, Inc. Evan Luecke (photography) Chuck Lehman, BAMBU Technologies Diana Lerma, Stokes Wagner Edward Mady, The Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows hether you call moving into a new, state- students more choices For questions, suggestions, or to submit Anthony L. Martin, Ogletree Deakins it an evolution or of-the-art academic relative to their passions, address changes, please contact: a revolution, the building. What you may and faculty more room to Dean McClain, McClain Consulting Group [email protected] hospitality industry not be aware of is that adjust course offerings Jordan Meisner, Hyatt Hotels Corporation Wis definitely going through one. Once we’ve recently completed as the industry continues Eileen Moore, Caesars Entertainment Cover photo by Josh Hawkins considered almost exclusively the hotel/ a full-scale redesign of to evolve. Timothy Muir, Focus Brands restaurant business, the industry has our hospitality curriculum, Dean Stowe Shoemaker, Ph.D. These are necessary Jacob Oberman, Rush Street Gaming exploded into multiple sectors such which is launching in the measures at a time when Aaron Rosenthal, Tropicana Las Vegas as integrated resorts, theme parks, Fall 2020 Semester (see “Changing Course,” being viable and valuable means staying HARRAH COLLEGE Susie Southgate-Fox, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc. entertainment, destination marketing Page 16). relevant and responsive. We owe it to our OF HOSPITALITY Lincoln Spoor, Feel Good Brands Inc. organizations (DMOs), meeting-incentive- This is truly a watershed moment students to increase their marketability, Faisal Sublaban, Bonotel Exclusive Travel conference-exhibitions (MICE), sports and for the college, but the process wasn’t and we owe it to the industry to provide Josh Swissman, Stations Casinos LLC events, and even museums. easy. We worked closely with industry a workforce that not only can make an Rikki Tanenbaum, San Manuel Casino The Harrah College of Hospitality has leaders over several years to identify the immediate organizational impact, but made it our mission to remain in step specific professional competencies that also have the knowledge, skills, and with the industry by emulating their the industry now seeks in employees, dispositions to move up the chain commitment to reinvention. We do this today as well as those they believe will of command. by serving not only as educators, but also be crucial for the future. Our faculty then Make no mistake: The winds of change as surveyors of trends and champions of worked tirelessly to shape a curriculum in the hospitality industry are blowing opportunities. If you’ve been following that would deliver these highly-coveted strong. And as the industry continues to the college, you know that we’ve recently knowledge, skills, and dispositions to the evolve, so too will the William F. Harrah undergone a wholesale transformation— student. Furthermore, the college built College of Hospitality. changing the name of our college and flexibility into the new curriculum to give PHOTO BY ERIC JAMISON 4 SPRING 2020 SPRING 2020 5 FRONT OF HOUSE FRONT OF HOUSE Recent Honors When they’re not busy doing research, teaching students, and serving on committees, Harrah College of Hospitality faculty are being recognized as leaders in the industry Career and Alumni Services Unite! After 12 years of focusing on internships and career readiness for hospitality students, the college’s Boughner Career Center has Beverage Lab Gets a evolved to encompass alumni relations. The Makeover change aligns with a university-level shift that merged career and alumni services The Southern Glazer’s Wine & functions to enhance engagement across the board. The Bob Boughner Center for Career Spirits Beverage Academy in & Alumni Services is charged with providing NHLA Women in Lodging Member of Best Paper Award Hospitality Hall received an connections for students and graduates, the Year (2019) BILLY BAI anticipated upgrade in summer promoting internship and recruitment TONI REPETTI Professor Billy Bai’s co-authored paper, “Virtual opportunities over our wide alumni network, Hospitality College Assistant Professor Dr. Toni Reality in Hotel Commercials: An Experimental 2019. Used for teaching and supporting the college’s alumni family. Repetti received the 2019 Women in Lodging Study of Advertising Effectiveness,” received and hosting campus and Member of the Year Award from the Nevada the Best Paper Award at the July 2019 ICHRIE Hotel & Lodging Association (NHLA). The Conference in New Orleans. community events, the space award, presented at the NHLA Gala Dinner & has been fitted with a custom Awards ceremony October 17, 2019, recognizes Golf Professional of the Year stationary counter, two mobile a member of the NHLA Women in Lodging KENDALL MURPHY division who has contributed substantially Instructor Kendall Murphy was named Golf bars, two EuroCave wine cellars to the growth, productivity, and visibility of Professional of the Year (2019) by the Southern (with capacity to hold more Women in Lodging. Nevada chapter of the PGA. than 165 bottles), cabinetry Horton Smith Award Research Assistantship Grant with display shelving, and CHRIS CAIN AMANDA BELARMINO AND enhanced lighting. Special The Southwest PGA honored Dr. Chris Cain CASS SHUM thanks to our donor Southern as its 2019 winner of the Horton Smith Award, Assistant professors Amanda Belarmino and recognizing a PGA professional who serves as a Cass Shum received UNLV’s Top Tier Doctoral Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, model educator. Graduate Research Assistantship Grant, architect Carpenter Sellers Del which provides funding for a doctoral research Gatto, and installer McCarthy assistant for up to three years. Building Companies. Toni Repetti (L) and award sponsor Lynn Gray from Standard Textile PHOTO COURTESY OF RONNA TIMPA 6 SPRING 2020 SPRING 2020 7 COLLEGE NEWS AHEAD OF THE GAME Students of the college’s PGA golf management program learn hospitality principles while perfecting their game. that UNLV’s Golf Management program is the only one in which students major in hospitality also appealed to the PGA of America’s leadership team. “We have a leading hospitality management program at UNLV,” says Chris Cain, director of UNLV’s PGA Golf Management University Program. “We’ve been doing this for several decades … so we had the expertise, we had the industry connections, and we had a mechanism to make this work—to actually deliver a product.” Cain served on the PGA’s national