Sierra Nevada University


Sierra Nevada University is a private university in Incline Village, Nevada in the Sierras. Founded in 1969, the college is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Prior to 2020, the institution was known as Sierra Nevada College. In the summer of 2019, Dr. Ed Zschau became the interim president of Sierra Nevada University and, among other initiatives, spearheaded the change in the institution's name.

Academics

The Departments of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Business, and Science and Technology offer traditional majors as well as Interdisicplinary Studies programs. The Business department at SNU also offers Ski Business and Resort Management as a four-year degree. The teacher education program leads to Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Arts in Administration and Masters in Education degrees as well as to teacher licensure in Nevada. The College also operates two low-residency, Masters of Fine Arts programs. Creative Writing and Interdisciplinary Arts MFA's use a low-residency format and individual mentoring to prepare artists and writers for professional and artistic success.
The MFA-IA program focuses on site-specific and community practice, with a large part of each residency taking place off site at partner locations such as the Sagehen Creek Field Station.
SNU, in collaboration with UC Davis, houses the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, a facility conducting research on Lake Tahoe.
From 2016 to 2019, as part of an initiative to expand access to four-year degrees, SNU also operated extension centers on community college campuses. There are SNU Extension centers currently on the campus of Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe, Truckee Meadows Community College's Dandini Campus in Reno, Nevada. Each Extension Center offered degrees specific to demand on the campus where they are located, and included B.A. in Psychology, B.A. or B.S. in General Studies, a B.S. in Business Administration in Entrepreneurship or Global Business Management.

Summer visiting artist workshops

Sierra Nevada University hosts an extensive program of Summer Visiting Artist Workshops which feature well-known artists from multiple disciplines. Artists such as printmaker Sean Starwars, and visual artist and experimental filmmaker Tim Guthrie are regular workshop leaders.

Athletics

The college has varsity athletics programs in skiing and snowboarding, lacrosse, golf, and soccer in the Cal Pac Conference. The Eagles have won many United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association national championships in both men's and women's events.

Notable faculty, past and present