About the University of Nevada, Reno

Web address: http://www.unr.edu
Where to Write: University of Nevada, Reno Reno, NV 89557
Where to Call: (775) 784-1110

The University of Nevada, Reno, one of eight institutions within the Nevada System of Higher Education, is located in the city of Reno in northwestern Nevada.

About the University

Established in 1864, the year of the state's admission into the Union, the university first offered classes in 1874 in Elko as one of the rare preparatory higher schools in the intermountain region. In 1885, the university was moved to Reno, near the center of the state's population, and it has flourished since its first year of formal college-level study in 1887.

Within the University of Nevada, Reno, ten colleges offer undergraduate and graduate majors. Graduate-level training and research, including a number of doctoral-level programs, further the university's mission to create scholarly activity.

The university is classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education as a Comprehensive Doctoral (institution) with medical and/or veterinary medicine (CompDoc/MedVet). This designation indicates that the university awards doctoral degrees in the humanities, the social sciences, the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines as well as medicine. The university also offers professional education in other health professions, business, education, engineering, public policy and social work.

The university provides students the opportunity for study inside and outside the classroom. It is an institution that continues to develop new ways of thinking and preparing for the future.

The university is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, creed, national origin, veteran status, physical or mental disability, and in accordance with university policy, sexual orientation, in any program or activity it operates. The university employs only United States citizens and aliens lawfully authorized to work in the United States.

The Campus and Surrounding Area

The university is an integral part of the thriving Reno-Sparks metropolitan area. Its 255-acre campus of rolling hills features a blend of ivy-covered buildings, sweeping lawns and functional, progressive architecture. The academic atmosphere is filled with rich surroundings for the cultural and intellectual development of the student.

Beyond the university, the Reno-Sparks area lies prominently in an attractive natural setting. Bounded on the west by the majestic Sierra Nevada range and on the east by the rolling basin and range province, Reno-Sparks benefits from a comfortable climate. Marked by generally cool and dry weather, the area is a haven for those who love the four seasons.

Recreational activities are easy to find, as students can drive to the famed ski areas of Lake Tahoe and the historic Western realm of Virginia City all in one day.

The University: Missions and Goals

The University of Nevada, Reno is a constitutionally established, land-grant university. The university served the state of Nevada as its only state-supported institution of higher education for almost 75 years. In that historical role, it has emerged as a doctoral-granting university which focuses its resources on doing a select number of things well. The University of Nevada, Reno offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs, including selected doctoral and professional studies, which emphasize those programs and activities which best serve the needs of the state, region and nation. By fostering creative and scholarly activity, it encourages and supports faculty research and application of that research to state and national problems.

In performing its mission, the University of Nevada, Reno resolves to:

• Offer high-quality degree programs in the arts, sciences and in selected professions.
• Emphasize undergraduate, graduate and professional programs which meet the needs of the citizens of Nevada.
• Maintain a select number of doctoral and organized research programs.
• Offer a range of applied, interdisciplinary and career-oriented programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
• Provide community and public service programs through continuing education and cooperative extension.
• Contribute to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge that will help to improve society at the state, regional and national levels.
• Reflect and respect the rich ethnic and cultural diversity of the citizens of Nevada in its academic programs, support programs and in the composition of its faculty, administration, staff and student body.
• Reflect and respect the pattern of gender of the citizens of Nevada in its academic programs, support programs and in the composition of its faculty, administration, staff and student body.

• Continually improve the quality of teaching, research and public service activities.
• Recruit, develop and retain a faculty and staff of the highest caliber.
• Develop and maintain a graduate faculty under whose direction research, doctoral and professional programs will gain national stature.
• Ensure that the university's library, computing center and telecommunications systems will be able to provide the resources attendant to the needs of the instructional and research programs.
• Identify and support centers of excellence
• Enhance the research and public service capabilities of the university through increased collaboration with both the public and the private sectors, and by providing assistance to the state and local governments.
• Develop a curriculum that is sensitive to change, but which places a special value on a liberal arts foundation.
• Assure that all students, either upon entering the university, or upon admission to degree programs, have acquired basic verbal, oral, computational, analytical and computer skills.
• Provide all students with adequate and proper academic and career advising.
• Provide an opportunity for adults to upgrade their educational and professional backgrounds through continuing education courses and programs.
• Provide an institutional environment supportive of the internal quality of campus life.
• Offer a full range of student and support services which complement the instructional process.
• Develop and maintain programs which recognize the valuable human resource provided by our students, faculty and staff.
• Maintain and utilize the physical plant at a level which enhances the programs and activities of the university.
• Utilize resources efficiently and effectively through prioritized allocations and reallocations.
• Develop strategic planning processes, involving the entire university community, which can anticipate future opportunities and problems.
• Provide the flexibility to respond to new opportunities.
• Develop the means to obtain funds from public and private sources that will provide the support required to achieve these goals.
• Maximize the use of private funds to provide a margin of excellence in designated program areas.

The University: Values

The central value of the University of Nevada, Reno is quality, expressed in these characteristics we want our university to have:

• An unmistakable emphasis on learning and thinking.
• High standards for all of us: students, faculty and staff.
• Teaching that is clear, well organized, informed, relevant to students' needs, aimed at helping students to learn and think.
• A caring university environment that encourages students to assume responsibility for learning and personal development.
• Research, scholarship and creative activities that bring recognition to the university by contributing substantively and articulately to the body of knowledge and to the needs of society.
• Responsiveness to the needs of the people of Nevada, while preserving independence to exercise our time- honored role as critics of society.
• Programs that are well-conceived, coherent, up-to-date, and centered on the needs of participants.
• Accessibility and openness, so that all citizens who wish to participate in university life may do so, within the context of the standards required for quality.
• Responsibility to account for ourselves and our stewardship of the public trust, regularly and honestly reviewing our practices and making changes as our values and objectives indicate.
• Celebration of human and cultural diversity. In our teaching and by example, we will impart to our students the importance of receptivity to new information, objective thinking, tolerant behavior, social responsibility and community.
• Cooperation in the sense of encouraging multidisciplinary studies and programs. We seek to reinvigorate the meaning of the term "university"--the bringing together and unifying of diverse elements into a true intellectual community.
• Graciousness in the way we interact with one another, the way we recognize achievement, and the way we plan and carry out events.
• Civility in dealing with one another, rejecting rudeness as a failure to acknowledge the dignity of our common humanity. At the same time we will encourage the honest and rational consideration of conflicting ideas and diverse options, holding that this principle is not in discord with courtesy and mutual respect.
• Equity in the treatment of all members of our richly pluralistic community.
• Enterprise and creativity, so that we continually encourage better ways to achieve our goals and envision new and better goals to achieve.
• The celebration of achievement, giving recognition to our students, faculty and staff.
• Shared governance of the university so that all of us who have cast our lot with this enterprise can be participants both in determining our goals and in shouldering the responsibility to achieve those goals.
• A sense of humor.

The University: Diversity

The University of Nevada, Reno strongly supports the offering of programs and activities on a campus-wide basis that will promote diversity and enhance opportunities for minorities in higher education. The university is committed to provide services to meet student needs, to strengthen the system of financial support based on need and academic achievement, to hire minority faculty and staff, to develop a curriculum which will foster the growth and appreciation of multiculturalism on campus, and to develop an institutional environment in which all individuals, regardless of backgrounds, have the opportunity to flourish.

Degrees and Majors

The university offers assorted programs of study leading to bachelor's and advanced degrees in the various schools and colleges.

Degree programs are offered in the colleges and schools of agriculture, business administration, education, engineering, health and human sciences, journalism, liberal arts, medicine, science, and graduate studies. For a complete list of university degrees and programs of study, see the Degrees Offered section of the catalog.

Accreditation

The University of Nevada, Reno is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the U.S. Department of Education. The university has been accredited since 1938.

In addition to the Northwest Commission institutional accreditation, there are numerous university programs which are accredited by their national professional accrediting organizations. These specialized accrediting organizations, which are recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, include:

• Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (for selected programs in engineering and mines)
• Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
• American Dietetics Association Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education
• Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language-Hearing Pathology, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
• American Psychological Association
• Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs
• Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education
• Council on Social Work Education
• Liaison Committee on Medical Education (U.S. Department of Education -recognized accrediting body for programs leading to the M.D. degree in the United States)
• National Association of Schools of Music
• National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education