Unlike many more traditional colleges or universities, UNLV's history began somewhat inauspiciously. The first college-level classes in southern Nevada started on an extension basis in 1951 in a spare room at Las Vegas High School. Six years later, the university was founded officially as a southern regional division of the University of Nevada by action of the Nevada Board of Regents. In the summer of 1957, the university opened its first classroom and administration building - Maude Frazier Hall - on its present campus site.

The UNLV campus as it looked in 1962. Twenty-nine students accepted degrees at the university's first commencement in 1964. The following year, the Nevada Legislature named the school Nevada Southern University, and the Board of Regents hired the campus' first president. In 1968, the university was granted autonomy under the state's higher education system, giving it status equal to that of the University of Nevada, Reno. The Board of Regents approved the institution's present name - the University of Nevada, Las Vegas - in January 1969.

The UNLV of today is a far cry from what it was a mere 50 years ago. Enrollment today exceeds 28,000 students and continues to see an annual increase, and the university is connected in varied and important ways to the community it serves.

Department of Music

The Department of Music is housed in the Alta Ham Fine Arts Building and the Beam Music Center. The Alta Ham Fine Arts Building is a multi-million dollar facility offering jazz/percussion ensemble rehearsal rooms, practice rooms, studio offices, piano studio repertory rooms, an organ studio, and a small recital hall. The new Beam Music Center offers a state-of-the-art recording studio and MIDI lab, band/orchestra and opera/choral rehearsal rooms, new teaching studios, a modern Music Library which houses all scores, all recorded materials, and current reference resources, and the 300-seat Dr. Arturo Rando-Grillot Recital Hall.