The University of Nevada, Reno welcomed its largest freshman class to date with 3,811 students. This brings the school’s total enrollment up to 23,801 students as of fall 2025. That’s a lot of tuition.
In 2024 alone, the University increased tuition and fees for the ’23-’24 academic year, ’25-’26 academic year and again for the ’26-’27 academic year. For the ’25-’26 academic year, the cost of living in a dorm had the largest increase at 5% for all housing options and a 2.75% increase in meal plan rates. All freshmen living in the dorms at the University are required to purchase a meal plan in addition to paying to live in the dorm itself.
On Friday Jan. 23rd, the Nevada regents approved a 12% tuition hike over 3 years for UNR and UNLV students. The ’26-’27 academic year will see a 3% jump in tuition with the following years to have a 4% and 5% jump respectively. The mandatory fees such as the technology and athletic fees students pay have not been announced to change for the ’26-’27 year. The 12% hike will change the price per credit that students pay, which makes up the base tuition.
This academic year, in-state undergraduate students who take 15 credits and do not have housing, food or parking paid $10,321. Comparatively, the same students will pay $10,801 during the ’26-’27 academic year. As stated on the University website’s cost calculator, the ’25-’26 academic year’s rate of $4,327.50 goes towards tuition based on 15 credits a semester, with the remaining $833 being the mandatory student fees.
Some of the new fees for the ’25-’26 year include a $3.50 per credit athletics and recreation fee that goes directly to the new Fieldhouse. For a student taking 15 credits per semester, that is $105 a year they are being forced to spend on the Fieldhouse. Other existing fees have also increased, such as the Fitness Center fee that went from $90 a year to $110, and a major technology fee that increased from $270 to $540.
The mandatory fees increased by more than $700 for the whole academic year, raising the total intake from around $18 million to $20 million in tuition alone. This increase was voted on in an effort to pay for the $25 million indoor practice facility that the school broke ground on in August of ‘25.
The University is also in the process of implementing a $50 million investment plan, all for the football program; we have yet to see results from these investments. Some of this money comes out of students’ tuition, labeled as either “campus support” or “additional university support,” and the rest of the funds will supposedly come from donations.
According to US News & World Records, the university has climbed from its previous 2020 ranking of 225th in national universities to 192nd. However, our football team has only gone downhill; the Wolf Pack had a 7-2 record according to Nevada Athletics in 2020, had a 3-10 record in 2024 and had a 3-9 record this last season.
Nevada Athletics Director Stephanie Rempe stated in an interview with Nevada Sports Net that “There is nothing out there that brings communities together like sports. And if our football team is successful, it elevates our university.” Although sports do bring our campus together, approximately $2.867 million of Nevada’s student fees go towards athletics. That money will go towards the indoor facility, the football investment plan and even the yet-to-be-approved massive Mackay Stadium renovation that is estimated at $150 million, including a $70 million football operation building.
This indoor Fieldhouse will not be accessible to all students all the time like the Wiegand Fitness Center is. The facility will only be available to student athletes, the Wolf Pack Pride of the Sierra Marching Band, the UNR Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) and sport-focused student clubs. The University stated in its project announcement that there will be designated times, which are subject to change, when the indoor center will be available to all students.
The John Tulloch Business Building, which opened this past fall for students and faculty use, is the most recent investment by the University aimed at progressing the University as a whole. The classrooms and auditorium are used mainly for business classes, but are also used for large events such as a recent book preview for Jeffrey Rosen, an author and professor at George Washington University.
The new business building cost approximately $155 million – $45 million over the $110 million original estimated cost. Based on the Reno Gazette’s cost breakdown, the University will also pay approximately $9.75 million in annual fees for the next 30 years in order to fund the building, making the total amount paid over 30 years $292.5 million. The building will be privately owned by the developer for the 30 years before the University finishes making payments on it, after which UNR will be able to assume ownership.
The added classrooms and lecture hall in the new John Tulloch Building was much needed for the growing population of the University, however the upcoming Fieldhouse won’t benefit the majority of students. New investments should be made into projects such as new buildings or hiring more professors – investments that would benefit the whole student body.
This begs the question, what exactly is the student tuition paying for besides our athletic programs and new buildings that are inaccessible to the majority of students, and why should students pay for “upgrades” if they aren’t accessible and useful to everyone? If it’s to boost morale and enrollment, then there should be an equal amount of investment into new facilities or existing programs that will be accessible and beneficial to the majority of students.
For example, the Reynolds School of Journalism building and the John Tulloch Building are for a group of students and faculty that didn’t have equivalent resources to other programs. Just like the Davidson Math and Science Center and the William N. Pennington Engineering Building, the University is investing into the educational part of the University to make our academic programs equal across the board.
Students have seen a spike in enrollment over the last few years, which has impacted programs and class sizes. It’s been harder to get into classes this semester and many students have failed to get off waitlists for classes they need. If the University is going to spend money, it should be opening up more class sections and hiring more professors.
The 2024 hiring freeze that took place due to a massive budget deficit is also still in effect today, preventing the University from hiring additional professors. UNR President Brian Sandoval said at the Jan. 23 meeting regarding tuition that due to the hiring freeze and job cuts, $10 million a year has been saved. He also stated that without the tuition increase and cuts, UNR would still face a $1.5 million budget deficit.
According to the employee counts supplied by the Department of Human Resource at UNR, the number of academic faculty has gone down little by little over the last five years, going from 1,075 in 2021 to 1,055 in 2024.
Although that’s not a significant change, the student undergraduate body has grown by 14% in that same time period. Doesn’t that mean our academic faculty should have also grown?
To combat the growing enrollment and keep the student faculty ratio at 17:1, the University has had to open more class sections but has not added any faculty to meet this need. It is standard that UNR faculty are expected to teach three courses per academic semester and the university typically doesn’t allow faculty to teach over that amount. Instead of hiring more faculty to teach the added course sections, the University has opened up more Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) positions in multiple colleges, most notably in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA).
CLA opened up 16 new state-supported GTA positions over the last two years in order to help departments like english, art, philosophy, political science and communication studies. State-supported GTA refers to the 80% of graduate assistants at UNR that are state-funded through their respective colleges. This means the University is opening up GTA positions to combat growing student populations, rather than hiring accredited faculty.
The University has money, lots of it, and it could be using it to prove its value to current students rather than improving the athletics program for future members of the Wolf Pack. Until the University invests more into academics over athletics, students will keep paying more for less. It’s time for the University to shift its focus back on to what truly matters most to students: the quality of education they get for the price they pay.
