History of the Program

The Hospitality Management Department of the College of Southern Nevada began with the college in 1971 in the old Review-Journal newspaper  building on Main St. and Bonanza. The department consisted of two faculty members and approximately 40 students. The only degrees offered at that time were Hotel Management and Food Service Technology. The department added adjunct faculty members from the local Resort and Casino industry and additional faculty members in 1973 and 1975. In 1975 the department relocated to the Cheyenne campus in North Las Vegas.

1979 brought along the inclusion of the Gaming Management Associate Degree program, the first of its kind anywhere in the world. The department grew over the years, utilizing numerous well known executives from the expanding Las Vegas Hotel, Restaurant and Casino industry as adjunct faculty members.

1989, brought the inclusion of a new faculty member to begin the first Associate Degree Culinary Arts Program in the Las Vegas area. Still located on the Cheyenne campus of CSN the department experienced phenomenal growth over the next decade adding thousands of students and many new faculty members and new degrees in the areas of Hotel Management, Food and Beverage Management, Casino Management, Culinary and Pastry Arts and Travel and Tourism.

In 1995 the department took over new quarters in a 45,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility at the Cheyenne campus which includes a 100 seat restaurant, a bar/ lounge, 6 kitchens, massive storage facilities, an in-house laundry, a casino lab with all of the current table games and complete surveillance systems, a library, six general classrooms and 15 faculty offices. In addition to the classes held on the Cheyenne campus, many of the Department’s classes are taught at the college’s Charleston and Henderson campus’. The department’s faculty and students hold a high level of respect in the Las Vegas community and are well known locally and nationally as one of the top Hospitality Programs in the United States.