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The UC’s systems 10 campuses, already enroll 286,000 students. But housing options on and around most UC campuses are at capacity, leaving some students and faculty wondering: where are all the new students supposed to go?
The Los Angeles Times reports the UC system faces a growing capacity crisis. Projections show campuses may have to turn thousands of qualified applicants away for lack of space if nothing is done.
EdSource has reported schools most affected by this housing crisis are UC Santa Barbara, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Merced and Berkley.
“I know some of my friends have had struggles with getting housing,” said UCLA student Jamie Lee, “and when on the waitlist, scrambling for off campus apartments to live in.”
The state Legislative Analyst’s Office reported one in six UC students lived in hotels, temporary housing, or were even living outdoors because they did not have permanent housing.
One driver of demand for student housing: more high school graduates are taking college preparatory coursework. In a report by Dive Brief, UC System President Michael Drake, says the number of high school graduates is expected to peak in 2025.
This year, UC Merced tallied a record-breaking 22,509 undergraduate applications. Also, UCLA also had a huge spike in applications receiving almost 17,000 more applications than in 2020.
But soon, UC schools may not have space for these new students. By 2030, roughly 144,000 students may be deprived of admission into these four-year-campuses, no matter the students’ qualifications, because of capacity limits, according to a study by the College Futures Foundation.
Already, students at UC Santa Barbara — and residents in the nearby communities of Isla Vista and Goleta — are feeling the pressure of the housing shortage around the university.
UC Santa Barbara made a contract with Santa Barbara County and the city of Goleta, which surrounds the campus. Since then, the university has committed to capping enrollment at 25,000 students through the year 2025, to build housing for the 5,000 students it planned to add, and to construct about nearly 2,000 new faculty and staff housing units.
“We are backpedaling on what the city should have done,” said George Relles, leader of the group Sustainable University Now, and a Goleta environmental activist. “By the university focusing on transportation and not housing, they have already un-done a lot of the good things they have committed to.”
To resolve the overcrowding issue, UCSB proposed a 4,500-bed building, Munger Hall, the namesake of donor Charles Munger. But its design, which included windowless dorm rooms, has provoked controversy.
“The reason it was designed that way, as Munger said, is to give a reason for students to come out of their rooms and be more social on an academic level,” said Gurleen Pabla, a third-year student at UCSB.
Pabla is not a fan of the current Munger Hall design. She believes that being stuck in a dorm room without natural light isn’t a good idea. She worried it might also worsen mental health challenges for students.
UC system president Michael Drake said in a Board of Regents meeting last week that the system will need to pursue a strategic and organic growth that matches the goals of individual campuses.
UC officials have now advocated for lawmakers to create a permanent loan fund with zero percent interest for students to be given the option for off campus housing.
This story was reported and produced by Liz Campos, Javien Sahaba, Bianca Sanchez & Natalie Sierra
