When Phil Burns arrived at UNLV, he never envisioned that his departure from the university would be met with countless job-well-done pats on the back and we’re-going-to-miss-you tears.

After all, such heartfelt sendoffs are reserved for lifers, and Burns — like so many individuals who move to Las Vegas to launch a career — had no intention of sticking around long.

The Ohio native’s game plan upon landing a job in what was then known as the Campus Community Development office: Work hard for a year or two, gain some valuable experience, move on to greener, less dusty pastures.

“Sure enough, when I got here, not only did I quickly come to like the campus community, but Las Vegas ended up being so different from my stereotype of it,” Burns says. “Being surrounded by Mount Charleston and the various national parks, and just the natural beauty of the landscape — as well as the communities that make up Las Vegas — it didn’t take long to realize that this is actually a great place to live.”

Nobody could’ve known it at the time, but that single revelation would prove to have a massively positive impact on literally generations of Rebels. Because from the moment he set foot on campus in fall 1995 until officially retiring as the executive director of UNLV’s Office of Student Rights & Responsibilities on July 24, Burns worked to support and ensure the well-being of Rebel students both in and out of the classroom.

“Student affairs is definitely a passion,” says Burns, who earned his graduate degree in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University. “I guess as a student I learned firsthand — and still strongly believe — that the co-curricular aspect of university life is equally as important as the curricular.

“Much of what a student learns about themselves — leadership, conflict resolution, how to interact with others, how to believe in themselves — can happen in different settings outside the classroom just as it can inside the classroom.”

Before riding off into the sunset, Burns sat down for an exit interview.

You came into higher education as a second act. What sparked your interest in student affairs?

After earning my undergraduate degree at Bowling Green, I worked as the company manager for performing arts companies, both here in America and for the European tour of Phantom of the Opera.

When we traveled, particularly around America, many of the shows we did were at universities. So a lot of my contacts were folks who were in charge of campus activities. As I spoke with them, I began to realize it was a pretty neat gig. That’s when I started asking people around the country, “What does this look like as a career?” Because while living on the road can be fun when you’re young, it gets old after a while.

After doing some research in the early 1990s, I learned that Bowling Green offered one of the programs that I was most interested in. It was (and probably still is) one of the more recognized programs in the country. I enrolled, and by the time I graduated with my masters at 33 — 11 years after completing my undergrad — I had taken advantage of so many professional development opportunities that I was in a really good position when I started looking for jobs. And the one at UNLV opened at the right time.

Why was UNLV the right fit at the time?

I always wanted to work at a larger four-year public institution. And I found UNLV’s student makeup — both then and now, as we are still heavily nontraditional — quite appealing. 

I originally came here to work with nontraditional and commuter students, and was situated in an office called Campus Community Development; it’s really what is now Student Involvement & Activities. For the first few years, I also was heavily involved in a lot of on-campus student activities. I was in charge of orientation, Welcome Week, homecoming, Unity Fest — if there was a big event, I coordinated it during my first few years.

Eventually, you transitioned to more of a student affairs role, and in particular student conduct. How did that come about?

Around 1997, Robert Ackerman, who was the vice president of Student Affairs, tapped my shoulder one day and asked if I might consider [moving into] what was then called Student Judicial Affairs. He said UNLV really didn’t have a formalized office for that — and to be honest, we barely had a Student Code of Conduct. Issues like academic misconduct were still handled by each academic department.

He said, “It will probably be a five-hour-per-week [Letter of Appointment], just to see if you like it.” Well, I studied student judicial affairs in my master’s program, so I knew that it [would require] more than five hours a week. But it was still a great opportunity.

While it wasn’t your plan initially, you started and ended your second career in the same place. Over the years, were you ever tempted to leave for another job?

I was certainly presented with some wonderful opportunities. But every time that happened and I analyzed everything, I said to myself, “But I’m still happier here.”

My husband and I have been together 28 years, and we’ve both had great, rewarding jobs that we didn’t want to leave. We always came to the realization that it’s not going to beat what we have here.

Tell me about a moment when you knew that you made a tangible impact on a student’s life?

While 95% of this job is very positive and rewarding, as you can imagine, there are difficult cases from time to time — even some that make the news. I remember a student organization case where a few students needed to be temporarily separated from campus until they took care of some stuff.

Roughly six or seven years after this particular case was resolved a young man — truly out of the blue — showed up in the office with his wife and kid. He asked if I was available, and he came back to see me. The first thing he said was, “Do you remember me?” Of course, I did, and I quickly thought, “Uh, what is this going to be about?”

He said, “I know nobody says this to you, but I just wanted to thank you. I needed somebody to kick my butt” — he might have used some more flowery language — “because if somebody hadn’t done that to me, I don’t know where I would be right now.” Then he pointed to his wife and child and said, “And I certainly wouldn’t have these two people in my life.”

It was a reminder that even during the difficult times, we are really trying to do what is best for a student and their development. It sounds cliché, but some clichés are born out of truth: I’d much rather give a student the chance to learn from a [negative] situation here rather than continue that behavior somewhere else and have much worse consequences.

I’ve always believed that our job is as much about student retention as any other office on campus. We really work to keep students successful here, and sometimes that might mean learning from some tough [discipline] so they can be successful down the road.

So your role wasn’t all that different from that of an educator, right?

I absolutely see those who work in the field of student conduct as educators first. By and large — and even in some of the other tough cases — we never want to miss that opportunity to educate the student. 

Of course, there are always going to be exceptions; sometimes students are in a position where they’re simply not capable of taking advantage of that education. Still, students are human; they’re going to make mistakes. Our job is to help them learn from a mistake so it doesn’t happen again.

In that regard, is it safe to say that over your 31 years on the job, no two days were ever alike? Was that part of the appeal?

You know, that’s another reason why I stayed here so long and loved my job. I truly am in a unique position on campus where every day is completely different. Take for example one of our most common cases — that being lower-level plagiarism (because our office also deals with academic integrity issues). 

I’m sure I’ve talked with 1,000 students, if not more, about plagiarism. But even if the cases look similar, each student is still an individual. So when we discuss not only what happened but how or why it happened, they start getting into what’s going on in their life and perhaps [reveal] why they made that bad decision. As a result, the support systems we connect students with look really different from student to student. 

From that perspective, as our culture and environment changes, we hopefully find new and better resources to offer students so they can learn from mistakes.

Speaking of change, how has UNLV’s student population evolved in the multiple generations that you’ve been on campus? 

There definitely have been some big changes with regard to our student body’s psyche — that is, the attitudes they bring in. 

Focusing on the positive first: It’s nice to see how many of our students seek out leadership development opportunities, and combine their academic and professional development. They’re also realizing that professional “development” doesn’t just mean an internship or a job that might pay well.

Also, one of the most rewarding things I’ve seen improve during my time here is our campus diversity. When I first got here in the mid-1990s — and I don’t mean this disrespectfully at all — our diversity was sort of a happy accident. I’m not sure that we intentionally went out and said, “We want to be a diverse campus.” We just grew into one. 

Over my time here, though, I’ve seen the university really embrace the value of what it means to have a diverse student body — no matter how you want to define it. It could be age, race, veteran status, [gender] identity, international students — whatever definition you want to use, we’re pretty darn diverse. And what an incredible outside-the-classroom learning lab that is for students.

As for a challenge that has resulted from change, one has to be technology. For instance, I find it a little sad at times to see how much people live on their phones. Because to me, learning how to communicate is so vitally important — how do we communicate with each other effectively and respectfully? To some degree, I’ve seen a larger percentage of students in recent years who are happy to not interact with others at all.

What advice do you have for the latest crop of Rebels who will arrive on campus this fall — especially those who are first-time college students?

First and foremost — and again, this is very cliché but incredibly true — be open to change, and be true to yourself. By that I mean take the time to find out what your beliefs and values are. Be open to new people and new experiences. Take this moment to decide who you are, and then be true to that ideal.

I don’t believe there’s a place better than a campus — especially a large public campus as diverse as ours — to give [young adults] the chance to stay open to opportunities, or to change their mind or plans when they discover something new that appeals to them.

What does retirement look like for you?

Because I loved my work, I was here on campus a lot, even on evenings and weekends. So as I’ve told many of my friends here, I want to be as busy in retirement as I was when I was working — only now doing what I want, when I want.

I’ve been looking into some local volunteer opportunities with civil support organizations. And I’ve always been a very enthusiastic dog lover, so I’m sure I’ll do some volunteer work with animals.

I also know I have at least 100 books at home that I want to read. I’m an avid reader; I read at least a book a week. I’d like to make a bigger dent in that pile.

Finally, I’ve applied for emeritus status with the university. I figure I can’t have been as involved as I have been for the last 31 years and just say, “OK, I’m done — peace out!” So I would really love to help out however I can — maybe not in the fall semester but in the near future — if there’s a task force or a committee, or maybe come back and teach a class here or there. So I’m not planning on making a clean break. I’ll still be around.

Lastly, as you depart, what thoughts do you have about the university, as well as the colleagues, friends, and students you’re leaving behind?

It’s been very overwhelming to close the book after 31 years and have everyone offering their hugs and thank yous. But I really do have just a huge sense of gratitude for the opportunity to have worked and learned from both colleagues and students. That’s one of the real blessings of working on a college campus.

I hope I’ve been able to make a positive contribution to campus and students along the way — I know I’ve tried my best to, and I believe I have.

I couldn’t have asked for a more rewarding career.