Going into this advanced nonfiction writing class, there weren’t a lot of expectations for what we would be doing. Nonfiction typically isn’t a category most people lean towards, and this is a required class for all English majors at the university. Little did we know though, how much of an effect this class would have on our education and our lives. 

Our focus this semester was mostly on “houselessness” as a topic. We read a bunch of different articles or nonfictional pieces focusing on houselessness in other parts of the United States, houselessness in Reno, affordable and unaffordable housing in other parts of the country that have improved or deteriorated and affordable and unaffordable housing for students, and for adults and people that have struggled from houselessness. We met with guest speakers who told us about their personal or professional connection to the houselessness topic — whether they were houseless themselves or studied affordable housing in their careers. When our professor told us we had to create a project covering one topic we felt passionate about and felt motivated to change, the idea came naturally to struggling students who felt underrepresented by their own university they pay thousands of dollars to attend. 

Hence the idea of affordable student housing advocacy came to be. The idea was presented and the three of us latched onto it, wanting to at least stir up some noise to bring change for the many struggling students at the university. 

It was a lot of work, there’s no sugarcoating it. But to us, it was worth working around our school and work schedules to get our voices heard. We started off with a Google survey that got quite a bit of responses and a lot of voices explaining that they struggled with the lack of affordable student housing. The anger and need for change were there and we realized it wasn’t just with the three of us. From there, we “took to the streets” as one says, and started getting on-the-ground video and audio interviews with students who were not afraid to speak their truth about the need for the University of Reno, Nevada to bring affordable student housing to its students — and from there we got its name “BASH Reno” which stands for “Bring Affordable Student Housing, Reno!” 

From there we built our social media page, published our anonymous quotes from the Google survey responses, posted our video interviews of students speaking their truth on the crazy high prices of rent, and kept the word out that change was needed. We then wrote a petition advocating for BASH Reno’s wants and needs to let the students’ voices echo through the administration’s walls. 

After receiving over 150 signatures on our petition, in only a week, we knew this was something that many students wanted and just needed the organizational push to follow. We continued to post about our activities and hand the petition around the campus to keep the affordable student housing need prominent in the media and students’ minds. We then created our digital composition — our final video — and sent it to others as well as presented it for our nonfiction writing class to show that our work and effort was making a mark on the people around us. 

BASH Reno is just the start of a greater change. Even if we didn’t see vast changes, we got to see great results from all the hard work we put into this organization’s creation. We hope this project stirred change in people and that they will continue to make their voices heard about the need for affordable student housing. We also hope someday other students may take up our progress and continue to push and protest for the demands our class wants for affordable student housing on and off campus.