Are UC’s Unable to Account for Students?

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, numerous U.S. colleges have been experiencing a massive ongoing housing crisis that has left many students effectively homeless. When schools shut down, many students moved out of their dorms — into nearby housing or back home. When schools reopened, the number of students exceeded the amount of dorms available, as many colleges underestimated how many students they had admitted. As a result, many University of California (UC) schools have been forced to either switch some students to online school for a semester or cut the number of their student admissions. The situation has gotten so extreme that some students have resorted to living in their cars, because off-campus housing is too expensive (San Francisco Chronicles). On-campus housing needs to be guaranteed for all students as it plays a crucial role in students’ decisions for college; without it, students do not have as many opportunities to achieve their goals.

“[Affordable housing] is a high priority because off-campus housing is expensive and most students have trouble affording [it],” senior Megan Eng said. “[If cheap housing is not an option], it would affect my decision making because if I had to [live off campus] for the first year, I would have to think about transportation and other expenses on top of my studies and that would negatively affect [my overall college experience].”

Housing plays a major factor when students are choosing a college; having the option to live on campus gives students a sense of safety and security. In addition, good, affordable housing can improve people’s physical and mental health as it reduces stress levels and disease (Housing Forward Virginia). Living on campus eases students into living independently, as living off campus can come with many more responsibilities, which can potentially be overwhelming. 

“[Living on campus] is important [to me],” senior Jett Carstetter said. “Since I [most likely] cannot afford to live off campus, I will not [consider] going to a college [that cannot guarantee dorms on-campus] because I am not going to [spend] a lot of money on [tuition and] housing. Guaranteed [living] on campus is a good long-term solution because students will not [have] additional stress.”

In order to guarantee residence for students, UCLA has repurposed buildings that were built for the 2028 Olympics into dorm buildings, since they finished construction early (Newsroom UCLA).  Additionally, other colleges like the University of California, San Diego are currently constructing new dorm buildings that are set to open in the fall of 2024 (10 News). However, since most of these new buildings will not be finished for a few years, current college students will face this housing crisis for most, if not all, of their college years. Many incoming college students have never lived on their own — they will not be prepared to deal with this situation. To solve this, colleges should be implementing more solutions such as constructing additional dorms, and not cutting student admissions. The number of student admissions should be increasing at the same rate as the global population, or else many students will not have the opportunity to get the education they deserve.

“When I heard about UC Berkeley cutting [their] admissions, I was [worried] since it is one of the schools I am interested in,” senior Emilia Oginski said. “The fact that they have to cut [their] admissions because they are unable to provide housing is unfortunate. A lot of people will not get the education that they worked very hard for, and that, in itself, is very demoralizing.”