University of Nevada, Reno

A History of the University of Nevada, Reno In 1864, the Constitution of the State of Nevada calls for the creation of a “State University” with instruction in Agriculture, Mechanic Arts and Mining. Ten years later, the University of Nevada, Reno was founded. Since its inception in 1874 as the state of Nevada’s first university, the University of Nevada, Reno has delivered on the promise of providing the citizens of Nevada with a better future. As the state’s land-grant university, and ranked among the nation’s top research universities by the Carnegie Foundation, the University is known as a high-impact institution. Students and faculty are solving the pressing issues our time and providing new paths for the state’s next generation of leaders. Over the past decade, the University has grown at a dynamic and record-setting rate, including student enrollment, number of National Merit scholars, student diversity, faculty achievement and productivity as well as infrastructure. The record growth of the modern University of Nevada, Reno, is in direct contrast to the first few decades of the University’s existence. When the University was founded in 1874, fresh from the enabling language of the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862, which created an endowment fund specifically for colleges and laid the groundwork for the modern American public university, it was in many ways fighting an uphill battle for relevance. Nevada was sparsely populated, with only a handful of high schools – by 1886 there numbered only seven. The University’s first iteration in Elko, which welcomed the institution’s first student body of seven students in October 1874, was more of a preparatory school than a true university. The fledgling university’s prospects for survival improved in 1885-86, when the Board of Regents transferred the University from Elko to Reno. The campus, now nestled on a hopeful bluff above the Truckee Meadows, opened its first building, Morrill Hall, in spring 1886 and welcomed 35 students. By 1900 the campus had grown to 11 buildings, two student dormitories and a gymnasium. In 1936, University enrollment surpassed the 1,000-student mark.