UNLV grows to see largest fall enrollment in school's six-decade-plus history

Thousands of students are back on UNLV campus for the fall semester.

The university tells us this is the largest fall enrollment ever.

I spoke to the university's president about what this means for the future of UNLV and took a look back at where it all started.

Las Vegas native Mia Delorme has a lot to look forward to in her first year at UNLV.

"The clubs I am going to join and the people I am going to meet," she said.

She is one of more than 32,000 students enrolled at UNLV this fall semester. This is the largest enrollment in the school's history.

It's a school that has come a long way, first being an extension of University of Nevada Reno in the early 1950s. Back then, campus was on the edge of town.

As Las Vegas grew, so did UNLV. In 1957, the first on-campus classes were held. In 1969, the school was named University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and just 5,500 students were enrolled.

In the '70s and '80s, UNLV was considered more of a commuter campus and was best known as a hotel and hospitality management school.

In recent years, more dorms, majors and schools were added, including a school of medicine and a law school.

"We are growing. We had the biggest spring class we ever had, and now we have the biggest fall class we have ever had," said University President Keith Whitfield.

Whitfield met students during a pop-up lemonade stand inside the business school.

He told me his goal is to be at 40,000 students by 2030.

"What do you think is on the horizon for UNLV when it comes to new programs and new schools?"

"You are going to make me tell. I try and be cautious because, you know, you don't want to tell people the way you are going," he told me. "When you see the growth in sports and what we have some incredible faculty around sports innovation, we have something happening in business school as well, we have got something in the business school as well in accounting, risk and insurance management."

He says they could see growth in film, computer science and cybersecurity too. They expect the faculty and campus to grow too.

"If we continue on the track that we are on, we'll need to grow," Whitfield said. "We have some plans for things we want to build, a new business building, a new fine arts building, a new college of education building as well."

Security changes have also come with the new semester following the deadly mass shooting on campus in December.

"Last year was my freshman year," said returning student Ethan Phui. "It was very rocky at times. After that incident, we are slowly getting together more."

Being from Las Vegas, Phui said this used to be known as an old commuter school. Now its growth has inspired him and his sister to come to school here.

"I have seen it grow from so long," Phui said. "My mom was UNLV alumni, and I was able to see what it was back then. Now it is way better. I would love to help it grow to new heights."

I also found out that more than 1,700 students now live on campus. That is the most the school has had since before the pandemic.