UC San Diego to Bring Back Triple Dorm Occupancy

In mid-January, UC San Diego announced its intention to return a limited number of triple dorms for the 2022-23 school year. This change will add 700 undergraduate beds to all housing locations on campus.

“It’s a balance between being committed to decreasing density on campus while doing our best to accommodate as many students as possible who apply for on-campus housing,” stated Leslie Sepuka, Associate Director of University Communications.

However, the University will continue to use the priority system it had used to place students in dorms for the current 2021-22 school year. In Spring Quarter 2021, UCSD’s Housing Dining Hospitality (HDH) announced it was removing triple dorm occupancy to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and taking away the two-year housing guarantee due to a net loss of housing capacity.

 “It was definitely because of the housing shortages,” said Manu Agni, Associated Student Body President, when asked why UCSD had reversed their previous housing policy and returned to triple dorms. He mentioned the school recognized last year how bad the housing crisis was but did not want to risk adding more beds because of COVID concerns.

After removing triple dorm occupancy, UCSD faced a housing crisis last summer when thousands of students couldn’t secure housing for the 2021-22 school year. More than 700 students were placed on the housing waitlists at the beginning of fall quarter. Rent in La Jolla also increased, rising to around $2,500 per month for a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment.

At the same time, the University announced that it admitted a record-breaking number of 40,616 first year students and 12,330 transfer students. According to Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, the school is expected to enroll up to 50,000 students within 10 years.

“The University controls what it can by providing robust financial aid, investing in the construction of additional student housing, and providing on-campus housing for students at rates that are more favorable than the local rental market,” Sepuka said.

Prior to the COVID lockdown, students experienced an uncomfortable environment while living in triple dorms due to the small space in the rooms and the height of the bunk beds.

“Before COVID, the triples that were there, a lot of them were in rooms that were not designed to be triples. You can be at the top bunk and hit your head, or you’ll be really close to the light, so that was bad. And those triples aren’t coming back,” Agni said.

To address the past issues associated with living in triples, Sepuka stated the University will consider “square footage, ceiling heights, wall soffits, and other physical limitations” when changing some of the dorm rooms back to triples.

According to Sepuka, the University of California Regents approved the construction of the Pepper Canyon West student housing project, which will provide housing for approximately 1,310 transfer and upper-division undergraduate students, at their January 2022 meeting. Construction is planned to start this summer, and Pepper Canyon West is expected to open in Fall 2024.

In addition, the Theatre District Living and Learning Neighborhood, which will provide about 2,000 new beds for undergraduate students, is scheduled to open in Fall 2023.

“In the long run, [the] campus is gonna build more than 7,000 housing spaces,” Agni said. He listed several other projects that will help house more students on campus, such as the construction of Eighth College, which will open in Fall Quarter 2023 and add 2,000 more beds.

Agni recommends students who will live off campus to start looking for housing as early as winter and spring quarter. “I’ve already started looking for housing for fall, so I think looking earlier is super important ‘cause you have more time and more options, and campus has updated a new off-campus housing website,” Agni said.

The UCSD HDH Off-Campus Housing Website provides students with links to apartment complexes with listings that are currently available in the La Jolla area. “It’s more modern, it has more options, [and] a better roommate matching option tool. There’s also a link down there where you can search for housing that is close to the trolley,” Agni said.

As of March 1, there are 15,844 students living on campus and 24,448 students living off campus for the current 2021-22 school year. Students should receive a housing contract offer in March 2022 and make their selection by April 2022.

Vanessa Gaeta-Munoz is a Junior News Editor for The Triton. You can follow her @_vnsgg.