Hospitality professor Rhonda Montgomery's 30-year career at UNLV has entailed a lot of committee work. She’s been chair of the Faculty Senate (twice) and myriad strategic planning committees, hiring committees, and working groups.

So she long ago developed the skills for handling conflicting-yet-equally-valid opinions, for finding points of consensus, and for developing plans that put all that talk into action. But when the Faculty Senate called upon her for its latest assignment, “I felt terrified,” she said. “And then incredibly touched.”

She is chair of the Faculty Senate-led Memorial Committee, charged with creating a permanent way to honor the three faculty members killed on Dec. 6, 2023 — professors Jerry Cha-Jan Chang, Patricia Navarro Velez, and Naoko Takemaru.

“This [memorial] will impact the well-being and healing of every student, every faculty member who was on campus that day,” Montgomery said. “As I told my colleagues [on the committee], we’ve published numerous textbooks, we’ve done lots of remarkable research, but this is what’s going to leave a lasting mark. The fruit of our work will be here for as long as UNLV is here. ”

The committee began meeting in February, and Montgomery expects its work to be a long-term commitment. “All the logistics aside, we know how important it is to get this right, and that will take time,” Montgomery said.

For context, the design selection phase for the 1 October memorial was completed just last September, nearly six years after the music festival shooting in Las Vegas.

The committee started its efforts to memorialize the professors and promote recovery by selecting a site for a Dec. 6 Memorial Healing Garden adjacent to the Baepler Xeric Garden and across from Hospitality Hall. The committee is working with Planning & Construction team to work out specifics, including construction details and a timeline.  

At the same time, the committee began surveying existing memorials around the world and the guiding principles behind creating them. The next step will entail a call for memorial design proposals and then an extensive feedback process before selecting the design.

But one thing the committee is already clear about is the end result they want: a memorial that’s more than a memorial.

“Much thought must go into how this will help the community heal,” she said, “Ultimately we want this to be a place that, when someone is in a difficult situation for whatever reason, they will come here, to our campus, and find solace.

“And what I really hope —” she started and then paused. “This was an attack on the very life and breath of who we are as an open campus, who we are as a public institution — so what I really hope is that this memorial reminds everyone that no one can defeat a Rebel.”