Staff Report

Last week the University of Nevada, Reno, opened the doors of Peavine Hall to 608 students, according to Rod Aeschlimann, Executive Director of Residential Life, Housing and Food Services. Five hundred and sixty-nine of those students are freshmen new to college life. Peavine has incorporated a theme of wellness into its residence hall. Aeschlimann presented a vast amount of information, which includes details on a seven-dimension wellness plan, or wheel, which pinpoints areas like spirituality, physicality and intelligence. The model has been adopted by other universities across the country as well as organizations like the International Council of Active Aging.

Peavine’s Wellness Community presents a challenge to each individual residing in the hall. Each resident will be introduced to their personal wellness plan. In presenting the plan as a challenge, Peavine’s staff has given its residents the chance to prioritize health and wellness topics that occur in everyday life.

The residence hall has dedicated two to three weeks to exploring and implementing each aspect of the Peavine wellness doctrine during the school year. Peavine’s Leadership Council officers will be organizing each wellness week along with three resident assistants. According to Marykatherine Woodson, Peavine’s residential director, each week will include three active programs and three passive programs that incorporate that week’s wellness wheel dimension.

“Wellness is a trending topic across colleges,” Woodson said. “I’m happy about the model we’ve implemented. We’re going to be able to help students become global citizens with wholistic wellness.”

Jennifer Leja, a resident hall staff member says that she also feels that the initiative is good for students, especially those who are just leaving home because they have people continuously looking out for their well-being.

“[Students] never really had to worry about their health at home,” Leja said. “This is a way for someone to be there to help them out.”

As the university continues to grow in size, plans to specialize each residence hall in certain areas will come to fruition. Aeschlimann commented on the plans to build a new residential area on campus.

“We are in the planning stages for a new residence hall that could open up as early as fall 2017,” Aeschlimann said. “[It’s] anticipated to accommodate approximately 434 students with a science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM focus.”

The news desk can be reached at jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu and on twitter @TheSagebrush.