By Laurie Babinski
Editor in Chief
Students found an unwelcome sight Tuesday afternoon as they arrived at the HAWC for their RLO housing appointments.
There were no rooms left and a sheet of paper — a wait list — to greet them in the lobby.
“All spaces are full for fall,” said Jim Brock, associate dean of students and director of Residential Life. “Right now, we are placing students on a wait list for housing.”
The wait list, 105 students long as of Wednesday at noon, is many students’ only shot at on-campus rooms.
“Housing fills up every year, and it’s not a unique a situation as some people believe it to be,” said Chris Richards, RLO housing assignment coordinator. “It’s just that it affects different students each year, so they’re not used to it.”
Students are currently assigned appointments on the basis of their number of units. When housing filled up, a wait list was posted. Because the wait list is open to all students to sign regardless of housing priority, Brock assures students that housing will be awarded according to credit priority, not location on the wait list.
But due to increased enrollment, changes in housing procedure and a greater desire to live on campus, housing filled with freshmen and sophomores before juniors and seniors who had not kept their current rooms had a chance to grab the coveted on-campus rooms.
“Appointments are a moot point at this juncture,” Richards said.
Students were not happy about the situation. Housing in Malibu and Calabasas is notoriously expensive, and even Woodland Hills apartments cost more than on-campus rooms, which will run from $3,045 for apartments to $4,130 per semester for rooms with a 1,400-point meal plan.
Room rates have increased between 4.52 percent and 5 percent from last year. A flat-rate tuition increase of 4.37 percent at Seaver, down slightly from last year’s 5.004 percent increase, will not help students ease the financial squeeze.
“Let’s see, I’m from the East Coast, I don’t have a car and I have no money to buy a car,” said Benjamin Last, a sophomore economics major with junior standing. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Many other future upperclassmen are finding themselves in the same situation, forced to add their names to the wait list in hopes of securing a spot on campus.
According to Brock, housing filled before all male sophomores-to-be, who are required to live on campus, could be given beds.
“Our priority right now is the handful of current freshmen men that are not in place,” Brock said. “Then we’ll take a look at how we’re going to manage the wait list … We have to have some kind of method with which to approach this.”
But credits may not be the only determining factor in prioritizing the wait list. “There is a possibility that we are also going to be looking at other considerations,” Brock said.
While he was unable to define what other considerations may be taken into account, Brock said that the decision will be made in the next few weeks in the way that RLO feels will benefit students most.
“We’re not in a hurry,” Brock said. “Most of the shifting takes place in summer, not before the end of the year.”
Richards agreed. “Right now (students are) just regrouping and figuring out what’s going to happen.”
According to Brock, however, student concern is understandable. “Students are wanting to know what this means for them and how the university is trying to assist them,” he said. “There’s been a perception out there that if you’re a Pepperdine student, you’re guaranteed housing all four years. In the past, generally if you’ve wanted housing, you’ve been able to get on campus. It’s just not possible now.”
High admissions numbers – roughly 825 new students were admitted to next year’s incoming class, up more than 200 students from this year’s incoming class and the largest group of incoming students admitted to Pepperdine in recent history – and increased upperclassmen desiring to live on campus have triggered policy changes that have resulted in the large pool of students without rooms.
“Honestly, it’s hard for us to predict how much of an issue it’s going to be,” Brock said. “There’s a lot of factors there that make it impossible to determine.”
And while specific numbers were tough, according to Richards, RLO knew that housing would be tighter than the previous years. “As soon as admissions gave us the numbers, we knew that this was going to happen,” Richards said.
And while Towers, Seaver and George Page apartment residents were allowed to keep their rooms to ensure housing, RLO enacted a policy that prohibited students living in the residence halls from doing the same so that the office could accommodate the influx of new students. However, freshman and sophomores are still required to live on campus, creating a housing logjam.
Changes in other procedures to accommodate the large number of new students also created difficulties. For the first time, “Highest priority for on-campus housing is given to freshmen and sophomores because these students are required to live on campus,” a March 5 RLO e-mail said. “Second priority for housing is given to returning full-time, upper-division undergraduate students. If you wish to live on campus you should reserve your current (Towers or apartment) room and not try to move to a different apartment or tower space.”
And while RLO changed policies and encouraged students to keep their current rooms in an effort to manage housing given the tight numbers, even staff members were surprised at the rate housing filled to capacity.
“It went quicker than we thought it would,” Brock said.
Brock assures students that the housing policies will be reviewed each year to ensure that RLO is best serving student needs. For the moment, however, RLO is attempting to aid students in finding housing both on campus and off campus.
Brock is encouraging students to contact Residential Life to clear up any confusion. “Students can still come for their appointments and talk to someone in Residential Life,” Brock said. “Right now we’re just encouraging students to sign the wait list.”
Brock also reassures students on the waiting list that RLO will communicate with them on a regular basis via phone and their Pepperdine e-mail accounts to make sure that they know what their position is for housing and how probable it is that a space will open up.
RLO is even negotiating with convenient off-campus sites, such as Oakwood apartments in Woodland Hills, which deal with the university to offer students amenities such as furnished apartments and deposit waivers.
“I think that anything we can do like that to give students that type of information will be beneficial for both us and the students,” Brock said.
March 21, 2002
