San Jose State University has notified more than 600 students, including 118 freshmen required to live on campus, that it doesn’t have enough space in the dorms, after a surge in enrollment that has left hundreds of students scrambling for housing options this fall.
“Unfortunately, based on your wait list status at this time, we do not anticipate being able to offer you a space on campus in the apartments as you requested, prior to the start of the academic year,” reads the letter, sent to families June 20.
The notice was particularly striking for incoming freshmen who live more than 30 miles away and are told they must live on campus. The policy is part of an effort to increase graduation rates, which are higher among students connected to campus life. But the university will have to waive the requirement this year for nearly 120 freshmen the school doesn’t have space to house.
One woman, who did not want to be named for fear her family would face backlash from the school, said her daughter committed to San Jose State in part because of the chance to live on campus. She filled out an application, paid a $600 initial deposit and a $50 non-refundable application fee, and began anticipating dorm life. There was no indication from the school that space was limited.
But on June 20, her daughter received the email from the school’s housing office.
“She’s heartbroken,” her mom said. “She’s not getting the college experience she’s always wanted.”
The notice included a link to off-campus housing options, which the family researched. One agency wanted $2,200 a month for a one-bedroom apartment that would require a bus ride to get to school and is located near a run-down strip mall. When the family called back a second time, the price had gone up. (A student living on campus at San Jose State will pay an average of about $15,500 total next school year for housing and food.)
The family lives about 80 miles from the school, a drive that can take hours in Bay Area traffic.
Normally, San Jose State enrolls 3,000-4,000 first-time freshmen and the school was anticipating about 4,000 for the coming academic year, spokeswoman Pat Lopes Harris said. Instead, 5,050 have said they plan to enroll, which exceeds the school’s supply of housing. “For some reason, people are valuing more and more that acceptance to San Jose State,” she said.
It’s not a new issue (In 2011, San Jose State made news when it moved some students into a hotel three miles from campus temporarily) but it’s one that has been exacerbated in recent years as the school has morphed from an accessible commuter campus into a competitive university and as housing costs in the Bay Area have climbed.
The university has previously been able to house all of its freshmen from outside a 30-mile radius. But while all of the freshmen “required” to live on campus who filed their housing applications before May 1 this year will get on-campus housing, the 118 who did not meet the deadline will not.
“We would like to house everybody who met the deadline in May and everyone else is on a waiting list,” said Lopes Harris. “That does unfortunately include some freshmen who live more than 30 miles away.”
