When nearly 1,000 high school students gathered in Las Vegas just before Thanksgiving for the annual Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum, UNLV leaders and staff turned out to support the effort. As an added bonus, the forum offers UNLV a chance to recruit Southern Nevada's top students.

"To have this many bright and talented high school students gathered in one place creates such a tremendously positive energy," said UNLV President Neal Smatresk, who led the university's contingent at the Youth Forum.

"Listening to these students tackle some of the pressing issues of the day reminds us why we became educators," he said. "They are so engaged and so committed to helping find solutions to the problems our country faces -- and they do it with such energy."

Smatresk was one of a more than a dozen UNLV leaders at the event at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum was established more than 50 years ago by the late Hank Greenspun, founder and publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, to give Las Vegas teens a venue for expressing their ideas and concerns. It now brings together hundreds of the top high school juniors and seniors from Southern Nevada.

Smatresk moderated a lively discussion under the heading "America." About 30 students debated topics ranging from immigration to taxation to health care.

The animated dialogue on immigration, for instance, elicited a variety of opinions. Some students said current laws were sufficient, but needed to be enforced more consistently; others argued that new, tougher laws were needed. Some felt all U.S. citizens should be required to carry identification cards stating their citizenship.

The teens participating brought a variety of perspectives to the conversation. While most were born in the United States, others were born elsewhere and either had become citizens or were in the process of obtaining citizenship. Still others were first-generation Americans whose parents were born in another country.

In addition to Smatresk, UNLV people moderating sessions included:

• Robert McCord, professor of educational leadership, "School Days"
• Timothy Porter, dean of the College of Sciences, "Potpourri"
• Ron Smith, vice president for research and dean of the Graduate College, "Teen Topics"
• Don Snyder, dean of the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, "Around the World"
• William Speer, interim dean of the College of Education, "Around the World"

In addition, UNLV staff manned a table at which students could ask questions and pick up application materials.

"When you listen to these students discuss complex topics with such insight and vitality, you know why we want them to become part of the UNLV community," Smatresk said.