The University of Nevada, Reno held its State of the University Address on Monday night, with UNR President Brian Sandoval giving an update on how the University is doing.
The address comes with the University recently celebrating its 151st anniversary.
When the University first moved from Elko to Reno in 1895, it had 50 students and a dozen faculty. Now they have 24,000 students and over 1,000 faculty.
UNR is also one of the top 100 research universities nationwide, and 101st in public universities.
Some of the new facilities they have include their brand-new business building and a few other things.
University President Sandoval says, "It really has shifted the gravity of our campus. The students love it, and the faculty and those who visit it are really in awe, and it's what you would expect at a national university. If you look on the north end of campus, the Public Health Lab is under construction, and that's been as good as any Public Health Lab that you could see in the United States."
Sandoval says both students and staff have won national awards across the board, which is a testament to the university's education and staff.
"If you measured our faculty proportionately, they would be in the top 100 of most productive facilities in the nation," said Sandoval. "So, it really is a place for all of us who grew up here and went to school here like I did. We've always been proud of our university, but it's time to tell our story on both a national and international stage."
He also said their retention record is 80% with students, and he says their Pack Pride is inspirational.
Carmina Aglupat, the Student Body President of the Associated Students of UNR, says, "What we want to do is increase the quality of education and increase the quality of the degree that students receive at this university, so the steps in growth that we're taking are definitely an improvement for students."
She adds, "I always had this strong belief that we would continue to take the steps forward and continue to progress to become a national university, and I like what President Sandoval said, where we know who we are now. It's time to show ourselves off to the rest of the world."
President Sandoval said the university's history is intertwined with the state's history.
"Almost everything good in Nevada started right here on this campus," he said. "I'm really proud of the relationship that we have with the governor, with the legislature, and with local elected officials. We are really proud of the fact that we are Nevada's college town, and it's really important to try and have that relationship."
President Sandoval also said that with or without funding, the university is applying to be recognized as a Hispanic-serving university.
"The funding would be great, but even without it, it's a really important designation, and so we will be applying for that. We just had our official count for the fall semester, which showed more than 25% of our students come from a Hispanic background. That makes us eligible to apply, so we will absolutely be applying for that."
He also talked about how proud he is of their student athletes.
"On the field and just as importantly in the classroom, they have their highest GPA they've had in the past 10 years," said Sandoval. "They're doing extremely well, and that's not just our softball team at the Mountain West Championship or baseball at the Mountain West State Championship. We're proud of men's basketball and women's basketball. Coach Levens does a great job, and Coach Alfred does."
He also says the biggest challenge they face is funding. They had some budget challenges in the last session, but the good news is their faculty staff received a 23% cost-of-living adjustment. It was only funded at 60%, but they're hoping in the 2027 session they can address the issue again.
