In a press release on Monday, July 15, the University of Nevada, Reno, shared an update on the situation regarding the July 5 Argenta explosions.

Inspections

The State Fire Marshal inspected all residence halls and student housing at the university. The State Fire Marshal deemed residence halls, excluding Argenta and Nye, and Ponderosa Village safe for students to live in.

Inspections occurred in Argenta Hall, Nye Hall, Peavine Hall, Sierra Hall, Nevada Living Learning Center, Great Basin Hall, Canada Hall and Ponderosa Village.

In a press release, the university said the boilers in residence halls are regularly inspected by third-party inspectors.

Housing Assignments

Housing assignments for the 2019-2020 school year have been delayed due to the explosion. Currently, the university is working on formalizing a plan for housing options due to 1300 beds in Argenta and Nye being out of commission for the 2019-2020 school year. 

The university said rates for housing will continue to be consistent with current published rates—a premium room in Sierra Hall being the most expensive at approximately $9,320 for the year and a double room in Juniper Hall or Manzanita Hall being the least expensive at approximately $5,650 without including meal plans. 

“With the news that both Argenta and Nye are structurally sound, our plan moving forward is to rehabilitate and reopen both buildings ASAP,” said President Marc Johnson in an email to university students. “We’ve moved into a new phase that includes developing requests for architectural design and construction planning, followed by the construction/rehabilitation projects themselves.”

On-Campus Dining

The university is finalizing where campus dining will be held, since the Downunder Cafe and Downunder Cafe Store was damaged in the explosion. The university hopes Nye Hall will be ready to reopen by Fall 2020 and Argenta by Fall 2021.

Tuition Hikes

The university will be raising student tuition by 4 percent for the upcoming school year, but the increase is not related to the explosions in Argenta. The raise was approved by the Nevada System of Higher Education in June 2018. 

If a student takes 30 credits within the school year, Nevada residents will pay around $8,034 while out-of-state residents will pay around $23,085.

Property Reunification

The university said there is continued effort to reunite affected students with their property. Officials estimate the reunification efforts will end this week, according to the press release.  

Virginia Street has also been reopened for traffic. The street was previously closed to the public due to the incident.

Taylor Johnson can be reached at tkjohnson@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush.