This story was originally published on December 9, 2019 on Medium
After the July 5 explosion in Argenta Hall, UNR rented the Circus Circus Skytower to turn into a fully functioning residence hall.
Since the mid-August opening of Wolf Pack Tower, the University of Nevada, Reno, the city of Reno, and students have been working together to accommodate the newest residence hall.
Just under 1,400 students are currently living in Wolf Pack Tower to make up for the out of commission rooms in Nye Hall and Argenta Hall due to a boiler explosion in Argenta Hall on July 5, 2019.
For the city-side of things, the Downtown Reno Partnership made a deal with UNR which got more Ambassadors on the streets.
“The Downtown Reno Partnership is a new business improvement district tasked with making downtown Reno a safer, cleaner, friendlier district for residents and visitors,” according to the Downtown Reno Partnership website. The business improvement district spans 120 city blocks from Ninth Street to California Avenue and Keystone Avenue to Wells Avenue.
Mike Higdon, the Marketing Director for the Reno Downtown Partnership said that the Partnership was approached by UNR because it was interested in hiring more Ambassadors to patrol the area between Wolf Pack Tower and the main campus.
According to the Downtown Reno Partnership website, in August four more Ambassadors were hired to “keep the pathway from the Wolf Pack Tower at the Circus Circus to the university clean safe and friendly.”
“We say that those Ambassadors belong to the students,” Higdon said. “This is their service. For them specifically.”
Grant Denton, the Operations Manager for the Reno Downtown Partnership said that the culture of the area around Wolf Pack Tower is different from the other areas that the Partnership covers.
“It’s two completely different gigs,” Denton said.
While all Ambassadors are trained the same, Denton said there is less of a homeless population around Wolf Pack Tower and Ambassadors are more focused on the safety of residents and making sure they see a friendly face.
Whether these Ambassadors are here to stay is up for question.
Hidgon said that since the four extra Ambassadors are being paid for by UNR it’s up to the college to decide if these positions stay.
City self improvements
The City of Reno also improved the physical aspects of the area around Wolf Pack Tower.
Kurt Dietrich, City Traffic Engineer for the City of Reno helped identify issues with sidewalks, lighting and walking paths around Wolf Pack Tower.
“We walked the path between Wolf Pack Tower and the university to see what it would be like for students making that trip twice a day and addressed any issues that they would come across,” Dietrich said.
A safe walking path was created from the corner of West Street and Sixth Street to Virginia Street and up Virginia Street to UNR.
According to Deitrich lighting was the biggest issue they noticed.
Along the safe walking path, three street lights were added, several burned out lights were fixed, and decorative lighting was added.
All planned improvements have been implemented at this time.
Inside the residence hall
While UNR is still working to make Wolf Pack Tower as similar to the other residence halls as possible, there have been some setbacks.
Peter Gatto is an Assistant Director for Residential Life, Housing and Food Services at UNR. He is in charge of supervision for Wolf Pack Tower.
Gatto said that the reason that UNR decided to use the Circus Circus Skytower for the new residence hall was based on its proximity to the university, it had the right number of rooms, and that they felt it had the ability to turn into a fully functioning residence hall.
Wolf Pack Tower has many similarities to other on-campus residence halls.
Gatto said that all entrances and exits require key card access and there are live-in resident assistants, academic mentors, and faculty. There are also study areas, common areas, and laundry facilities available for students to use.
While Wolf Pack Tower is up and running now, it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
Gatto said that the biggest challenge to creating the newest residence hall was the short timeline. The university only had six weeks to get Wolf Pack Tower operating.
This tight timeline led to their biggest success.
“We created and are providing a top-notch resident student experience at a property that needed to be transformed into a fully functioning residence hall over the course of 6 weeks,” Gatto said.
According to Gatto, there are 3,140 students living on campus (including Wolf Pack Tower) during the current Fall 2019 semester. Compared to 3,400 students that the Reno Gazette-Journal reported for the last fall semester, that’s a decrease of 7.6%.
A student perspective
Students are finding their own ways to deal with their unique living situation.
Justin Malogan, 19, is a second-year, neuroscience major living in Wolf Pack Tower. He lived on campus last year in the College of Science wing in the Nevada Living Learning Community.
Malogan said that he finds that living in Wolf Pack Tower has changed how he plans around his class times.
“I’m the type of person to wake up 15 minutes before my class but I can’t do that now because of the bus,” he said.
Malogan said that now most of his classes start later in the day so he can still wake up at a similar time.
Malogan also noticed a difference in how and when he eats on campus. He said he only eats on campus when it’s convenient for him.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a time where I’ve been at Tower and actively went to an on-campus location to eat. I usually use the Market or make my own thing,” Malogan said.
At this point, Wolf Pack Tower is not a permanent situation.
According to the Wolf Pack Tower Lease at Circus Circus, the initial term of the lease is from July 31, 2019 through May 16, 2020. There is the option to extend the lease for the next school year, from July 31, 2020 until May 15, 2021.
There is no planned reopening date for Nye Hall or Argenta Hall.
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