As UC Santa Cruz finishes offering campus housing to all undergraduate students on its priority waitlist, staff members are beginning to reach out to students on the general housing waitlist with offers to live in the limited, remaining residential space.
Demand for on-campus housing remains extremely high and exceeds remaining availability. Unfortunately, UC Santa Cruz will not be able to offer housing assignments to every student who wishes to live on campus. Because so few on-campus housing options remain available, all students on the general waitlist are being asked to confirm off-campus housing as soon as possible.
"We know this is disappointing and that the search for housing is stressful and time-consuming," said Sue Matthews, associate vice chancellor for Colleges, Housing and Educational Services. "We encourage students to use the campus resources that can help them find and secure off-campus housing."
The UC Santa Cruz Community Rentals Office provides helpful resources for students who are looking to rent rooms, apartments, or houses.
An online Renters Workshop helps students optimize their rental search and provides valuable tips for first-time renters.
The Places4Students.com rental site lists off-campus rentals in the communities surrounding UCSC. The site also invites UCSC students to create roommate profiles that can assist students in identifying like-minded individuals to join together in their search for off-campus rentals. The campus is also reaching out to local landlords, encouraging them to list their available properties.
The campus housing office is asking students who have secured off-campus housing to cancel their waitlist application so the campus can more accurately assess ongoing needs for on-campus accommodations.
Students with questions about the housing assignment process can find more information through a set of answers to frequently asked questions. Students who have questions not addressed on the list, can reach out to their College Housing office for further assistance.
UC Santa Cruz is committed to providing more campus housing options for its undergraduate and graduate students. The campus currently provides housing for about 9,300 students, more than half of its undergraduates.
Kresge College, one of UCSC’s 10 residential colleges, is undergoing a comprehensive renewal. When the expansive project is completed, it will include housing for approximately 970 undergraduates, about 600 more beds than what the college originally held. Plans for the second phase of the Kresge construction project will be considered by the UC Board of Regents later this year.
Student Housing West, which has been delayed by lawsuits, will enable UC Santa Cruz to offer much more housing to graduate students and upper-division undergraduates by building new housing units with space for around 3,000 students. The project, spread across two sites, will also allow the campus to expand child-care services to serve the children of faculty, staff, and students.
