By Eric Vallen
With the widespread application of vaccinations against Covid-19 since spring of this year, Covid cases have seen a steep drop off, resulting in pealbacks of restrictive measures concerning the virus. At the end of the spring semester, the vast majority of colleges throughout the country announced their full reopening to in person teaching in the fall semester.
The pandemic opened up the housing market in many college towns, resulting in non-students moving in as permanent residents. With colleges reopening, a squeeze has been created in the housing market for hundreds of colleges, resulting in many thousands of students not finding adequate housing for this fall semester. Due to Covid rates in other places of the world, the majority of colleges abroad programs are seeing cancellation and restrictions. Without gap year opportunities, and the recent reopening of campuses, many students have passed on taking gap years. As a result, enrollment numbers for in person schooling have reached all time highs, in a housing market that couldn’t occupy them if it was expanded to 1.5 times its current capacity.
To make the crisis worse, many schools, concerned with possible Covid-19 outbreaks, have restricted their housing halls capacities. Of course, this factor is subject to change depending on the type of institution and the region in which the institution is, however for the majority of high population schools in high population states, they’re instituting housing restrictions.
Colleges are entirely unprepared for the surge in demand for in person teaching and on campus housing, and as a result the welfare of their learning environments is at stake due to the environment they are providing to their students. Several prestigious colleges, most namely UCSC, UCSB, and UCSD have reduced their housing prices in an attempt to make housing more accessible, however they only worsened the problem. Lucky students gobbled up all of the cheap on campus housing, leaving students only having the option of off campus housing. Knowing this, landlords in general have increased their rental prices, leaving adequate housing largely out of the question for many hundreds of students. A recently interviewed student at UCSD, Grace Vallen, claimed she had to cough up 10,000 dollars, the first two months of her rent, just to convince her landlord to rent to her. If these are the measures students have to take in order to have a simple roof over their heads while they are trying to work towards their degrees, how are they supposed to see success? Mediocre preparation for the school year by colleges has isolated large demographics of the student body nationwide, jeopardizing their chances for success in college, and perhaps success in the world.