UC Dorm Overcrowding

UC DORM UC DORM OVERCROWDING OVERCROWDING

How increasing enrollment has impacted student life

JULIET SHEARIN

copy editor

UC Santa Barbara’s mostly windowless 4,500-person dorm is only the latest indictment of years of overcrowding in a UC system that has accepted more students than it can feasibly house or enroll in classes. The dormitory, designed and partially funded “ by billionaire and amateur architect Charlie Munger, would indeed solve the university’s housing crisis that pushed over 900 freshmen to the dorm waiting list last fall. Although Munger’s design has faced backlash for its lack of windows (94% of dorms would only have false windows lighted to reflect a day-night cycle), it fulfills its keystone promise: more beds for a desperately housing-strapped college town. These problems are not unique to Santa Barbara, though. There is a real need for housing on almost every UC campus. At UC Berkeley, 22% of undergraduates reported some level of housing insecurity during the pandemic. Throughout the UC system as a whole, more than sixteen thousand students were on various housing waitlists. UC San Diego has eliminated its two-year housing guarantee until 2023, also partially due to the pandemic. Given the system strain, it is not surprising that UC Santa Barbara would begin considering extreme solutions to its over-enrollment. However, although increasing the housing supply addresses one of the most crucial aspects of the problem — homelessness — it leaves others by the wayside. Enrolling in classes has, at many UCs, become hyper-competitive. UCSB freshmen often have trouble registering for 12 credits worth of classes, the minimum required to remain a full-time student. At UCLA, students have taken to buy-

ing and selling their class seats on Facebook. When students cannot enroll in their preferred classes, or in some cases any classes at all, the result THESE PROBLEMS is a worse ARE NOT UNIQUE TO SANeducational TA BARBARA, THOUGH. experience and students who THERE IS A REAL NEED FOR HOUSING ON ALMOST EVERY UC CAMPUS. ” have to pay for unnecessary additional quarters at university. Over-enrollment also brings increased demand for infrastructure, adding additional expenses for university administrators to cover. It is not surprising the UCSB would opt to cover their costs with a restricted donation from Charlie Munger for a largely-win dow -

less dormitory: the University of Michigan did so in 2013 to house 800 of its graduate students. The Munger Graduate Residences provide a miniature blueprint for UCSB’s future. Although some students report disrupted circadian rhythms and declining mental health, many are just grateful to have a centrally-located roof over their heads. Many UC Santa Barbara students are unable to say the same thing. In context, then, UCSB’s decision becomes understandable. Although it will worsen their issues with signing students up for classes, its benefits to a housing-strapped university are obvious. The uncomfortable truth is that colleges require high-density housing. With each room housing only one student, in some ways the Munger Hall will provide students with more privacy and amenities than other dorms on campus. Not every student will live there, but for those that do, it will function like normal college living: cramped, subpar accommodations that students leave when they can (through fifteen exits, not two as reported elsewhere) and use when they need to sleep or study in solitude. The backlash against the building reflects the pattern of opposition to new housing construction across California; however, there is no longer any denying the need for housing on UC campuses. The only next step is to decide on solutions, as UCSB has controversially done. As demand for college degrees rises year over year, the demand for on-campus housing will increase as well. There are no clear solutions: restricting enrollment, and thus college access, cramps promising students’ career opportunities, but over-enrollment without infrastructure investment throws students in the deep end of a hungry housing market. Extremely high-density housing has already become the norm in cities like Singapore

PHOTO COURTESY OF UC SANTA BARBARA and Nairobi. Whether it will become the future in Santa Barbara or highly-populated parts of the US remains to be seen.

“IN SOME WAYS THE MUNGER HALL WILL PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH MORE PRIVACY AND AMENITIES THAN OTHER DORMS ON CAMPUS”

PHOTO COURTESY OF FORBES