Living in Peavine Hall
An Anonymous contribution on a highly ranked living choice for students at UNR facing challenges.
Built in 2015, Peavine Hall is one of the newest residence halls available to UNR students. Even though it’s had fewer students in recent years, a lack of maintenance from broken elevators to malfunctioning dryers, makes it a challenge to live there.
Originally, the residence hall housed nearly 600 students with three students in each room. In 2019, the university made the decision to downsize Peavine Hall to two students per room and now houses roughly 400 students each year.
Located between Virginia Street and Sierra Street, Peavine Hall is directly across from campus and a short walk from popular Virginia Street businesses Buzzed Coffee, Insomnia Cookies, Laughing Planet and the Little Waldorf Saloon, making it a very convenient location for students.
Peavine Hall is regarded as one of the best residence halls offered at UNR and boasts the highest rating on Google out of all the UNR residence halls of 4.5 stars.
This might be because other options tend to be worse and Peavine has the advantage of bigger bedrooms.
Former Peavine Hall resident Malaina Fox lived in Peavine Hall for three semesters before moving to Sierra Hall for the Spring 2024 semester, due to a new tutoring job giving her automatic residence there.
“My freshman year I really really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it again my sophomore year, the only thing is I think it’s very much more of a freshman dorm which I did not like,” says Fox. “Being a freshman living in Peavine, I loved it for that reason, but coming back as a sophomore it made it hard to study in or sleep.”
Fox says that other residence halls are better suited to students returning to the residence halls after their freshman year, like Canada Hall or her current home, Sierra Hall.
“My only complaint is that in Peavine there are a lot of loud people. Peavine has better rooms than Sierra Hall but Sierra is very quiet compared to Peavine and I do like that,” says Fox. “I’d recommend it more to freshmen than anyone else and I wish I had tried to live in Canada Hall instead.”
Despite the high ratings, Peavine Hall has problems of its own, frustrating its residents.
This year, the five story building has had a series of elevator breakdowns with one of the two elevators in the building broken for a four month period between October of 2023 and February of 2024. Occasionally, both elevators would be out of service at the same time leaving residents feeling frustrated and angry by the lack of repairs on the building.
An anonymous resident of the fifth floor of Peavine Hall has felt dissatisfied by the quality of living in Peavine Hall and frustrated by the broken elevators.
“My main issue with living in Peavine is that repairs can be very slow such as the elevator, the broken exit sign on the fifth floor lounge, and the automatic door button was broken for a while too,” says the resident. “The elevator being down was very inconvenient. There was very little communication from Peavine about when repairs would happen and why it was so delayed. Coming back after a month of Winter break and nothing was done to fix the elevator was very upsetting.”
The annual cost of living at Peavine Hall according to the UNR website is $8200 for the most common room type available, a double with AC and private bathroom. For the nine months students will spend in Peavine Hall each academic year, they would be spending over $900 per month.
“I think that it’s too expensive. The rooms are shared, there’s no kitchen for the residents, as well as the many restrictions,” says the fifth floor resident. “I know that there is housing around UNR that is the same price or less while offering more privacy, less restrictions, and appliances.”
Residents have also felt frustrated by a recent email sent to residents of the fifth floor by Peavine Hall Resident Directors, Yi Xuen Tay and Vraveryk Francyne Gina.
Residents of the fifth floor received emails in March 2024 regarding a series of incidents occurring in the common area of the fifth floor resulting in extra cleaning. Unable to identify who damaged the hall, the entire floor could possibly be charged for the cleaning and damage.
“I think that immediately jumping to threats of collective punishment was an extreme reaction from the Peavine staff. I didn’t even see how bad the mess was as there did not seem to be any lasting damage. I think that there could have been better ways to address the issue,” our interviewee said.
Peavine Hall is considered one of the best residence halls available at UNR and is often a top choice for students. Maintenance issues are a recurring issue throughout UNR residence halls, and Peavine Hall is no exception to this despite its popularity.
For some though, the cost of living in the dorms is no longer worth the convenience of its distance to campus with its restrictions and lack of amenities like a kitchen space. The cost of dorms increases each year, and the cost of living in Peavine Hall will increase by $500 next year, bringing the monthly cost of living to over $960.
