Issue 30 04/24/2018

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SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO SINCE 1893

TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2018

FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES $1.00 EACH EACH

NEWS in REVIEW By Karolina Rivas

INTERNATIONAL NORTH KOREA SUSPENDS NUCLEAR TESTING

VOLUME 124, ISSUE 30

AS UNR ENROLLMENT RISES, NATIONAL NUMBERS FALL

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced earlier this week that the country plans to suspend nuclear testing next month, North Korean news outlet Korean Central News Agency reports. According to ABC News, Un announced that North Korea will “no longer need any nuclear tests, mid and long and ICBM rocket tests.” Un also announced that the country will be shutting down Poongye-ri, a nuclear test site in North Korea that conducted multiple underground tests. In a pair of tweets, President Donald Trump praised Un’s decision as “very good news for North Korea and the World.”

NATIONAL FOUR KILLED IN AT WAFFLE HOUSE SHOOTING NEAR NASHVILLE On Sunday, April 22, a man opened fire at a Waffle House near Nashville, Tennessee, shooting six people and killing four. Officials have identified the gunman as 29-year-old Travis Reinking who is suspected to be from Morton, Illinois, but currently lives in Tennessee. According to witnesses, Reinking stood naked from the waist down when he opened fire with an assault-style rifle. Police say that 29-year-old James Shaw Jr. was in the restaurant when the shooting took place and was able to take the rifle away from Reinking before he bolted from the scene. After a continuous manhunt, Reinking was placed into custody on Monday. His motive remains unclear.

LOCAL HIGH LEVELS OF RADIOACTIVE GAS COLLECTED FROM RENO LIBRARY The Washoe County library on Center Street tested positive for high levels of a radioactive gas known as radon, the Reno Gazette-Journal reports. Radon is odorless, colorless, and has been linked to causing lung cancer if exposed to the gas for a prolonged amount of time. In February, Washoe County, in partnership with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, conducted tests at the library that resulted in levels of radon anywhere from 13 to 67.8 picocuries per liter of radioactive gas. “We are trying to do the right thing,” director of the community services division, Eric Crump, said. “Radon, from everything that I’ve looked at, is a long-term exposure (danger). It’s not an immediate threat for people coming and visiting the library.”

Karolina Rivas can be reached at karolinar@sagebrush.unr. edu and on Twitter @karolinarrivas.

File Photo/Nevada Sagebrush

In this file photo, hundreds of students gather on the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center lawn on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017. Student enrollment at the University of Nevada, Reno is expected to hit 25,000 students by 2025.

By Olivia Ali As tuition is going up, enrollment at America’s higher education institutions is going down. For the sixth year in a row, the number of people enrolled in colleges and universities is declining, according to a study by The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The study found that overall enrollment fell by 1 percent this past year, a drop just a hair less than the 1.4 percent drop from 2016 and the 1.7 percent drop from 2015. Undergraduates seem to be driving the decline. In the Cen-

ter’s 2017 study, overall enrollment of undergraduate students fell 1.4 percent. “This suggests further declines to come overall in the years ahead, which will continue to present planning challenges for institutions and policymakers seeking to adapt to new economic and demographic realities,” said Doug Shapiro, the Center’s executive research director, in a statement. But while enrollment is falling nationwide, the University of Nevada, Reno, continues to buck the national trend. During an ASUN Senate meet-

ing from earlier this month, Associate Vice President of Enrollment Services Melisa Choroszy gave revised internal estimates that peg UNR’s enrollment to hit 25,000 by 2025. Choroszy said that the projected enrollment rate increases by a “modest 1-2 percent per year.” That falls in line with the most recent enrollment trends at UNR. Total enrollment of students at the university grew by 1.4 percent between fall 2016 and fall 2017. In terms of total students added, it amounts to an increase from 21,353 students in 2016 to 21,657 in 2017.

This vast growth of the number of students at the university is unexpected, as expected projections prior to this were only 20,000 students by the 2020 school year. The university surpassed this projection during the 2015-2016 academic year with a total enrollment of 20,898 students. The increase of undergraduate students at UNR provides a stark contrast to universities nationwide, as the university saw a 0.8 percent jump as opposed to the nationwide fall of 1.4 percent. Though while the number of Reno undergrads bucks the

trend, the number of grad students seems to hew far closer to national averages. Nationally, graduate enrollment is up by 0.9 percent. While much lower than the university’s 4.8 percent increase, both populations are increasing. According to Choroszy, the diverse program areas offered by the university may be the cause. The university offers more than 145 degree programs. For comparison, other schools often offer far fewer. Stanford, for

See STUDENTS page A2

Basin Hall give tours UNR Med receives $2 Nevada leads country prior to Fall opening million research grant in meth-related deaths By Austin Daly

By Karolina Rivas

While the newest residence hall on campus, Great Basin Hall, is still under construction through this summer, the University of Nevada, Reno, is already holding tours throughout the first two weeks of April for prospective students. “Students have been able to view the rooms in all the other residence halls,” said Wyatt Wagner, the housing operations coordinator and tour guide for Great Basin. “And so I’m glad we did these tours because we gave them that opportunity to see all the room configurations since we weren’t able to do that earlier this year.” The tours went on for four days in early April. Students were able to see all the different types of rooms and the multiple study lounges. “It’s to get students excited about living on campus,” said Jerome Maese, the director for residential life. “And to show them where their new home is going to be and to help promote that special kind of living environment for everyone who is looking to live there.” The residence hall will be available for all undergraduate students pursuing a degree in STEM fields, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Great Basin has been built with specific amenities for students in STEM classes such as work rooms, study lounges, academic mentors and a 24-hour computer lab. The building also includes plans for an

FIRST TIME AT COACHELLA

See BASIN page A3

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By Ryan Suppe

See UNR MED page A2 Photographer/Nevada Sagebrush

Amphetamine death rates among Nevada residents lead the nation, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study states death rates in Nevada from “psychostimulants” — a category which includes methamphetamine, ecstasy and ADHD drugs like Adderall and Ritalin — hit 7.5 per 100,000 in 2016, up 32 percent from the previous year. The national average for psychostimulant deaths hit 2.4 per 100,000, a 33 percent increase from 2015. Nevada had the highest death rate, followed by New Mexico and Oklahoma, each with 7.1 psychostimulant deaths per 100,000. The CDC report included data from 31 states and Washington D.C. “From 2015 to 2016, deaths increased across all drug categories examined,” the study said. “The largest overall rate increases occurred among deaths involving cocaine (52.4 percent) and synthetic opioids (100 percent), likely driven by illicitly manufactured fentanyl.” While opioid deaths rose nationally, they decreased in Nevada from 9.8 per 100,000 to 8.9 per 100,000, according to the CDC report. The study showed college-aged students — age 15 to 24 — had the second-lowest death rate from psychostimulants nationally at 1.3 per 100,000.

Dr. Seungil Ro, Ph.D., studies the correlation between obesity and Type 2 diabetes on Friday, March 23. Ro has received a $2 million grant to aid his research.

BUSH ERA AMNESIA

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RETOOLING THE ROSTER

See METH page A2

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