Seaside Residence Hall overlooks the track. Drescher Campus Apartments are located further up the hill behind Seaside. Photo by Rochelle Williams
Given the Malibu beachfront view, Pepperdine may seem to have it all. One of its issues, though, is a lack of student housing.
Pepperdine students who want to live on campus can choose between six different residence options, but it’s not always enough to house all the students who apply for on-campus housing.
“Living on campus, there is just a convenience to it,” senior Ava Moreno said. “What really made me want to be on campus more was the unpredictability of the weather, too, and closing the canyon.”
Infographic by Melissa Houston
Pepperdine’s Housing Hurdles
Moreno said she had hopes of living on campus her junior year at Pepperdine. She was looking forward to the convenience of being close to classes and avoiding a long commute through the canyon.
Despite following through with the housing application process on time, Moreno said she found herself waitlisted from on-campus housing options due not having a priority time slot when selecting housing. There were not enough available rooms.
“We had a late time slot,” Moreno said. “We were at noon while people had their times at 9 a.m. When my roommate went on the site to pick up our rooms, there was nothing left for a group of three.”
She said she later realized this group pairing was less favored in the housing portal when it came to giving out time slots. As a result, Moreno and her roommates were left with little to no options for housing when their time slot arrived.
Pepperdine Housing and Residence Life (HRL) did not give the three the option of splitting up and living separately with random groups, Moreno said.
“Essentially, Housing said that because we signed the contract, they could not break us up,” Moreno said. “The only thing we could do was go off the waitlist and have to go off-campus housing.”
Because Pepperdine is located in Malibu, there is a lack of affordable housing around the school for off-campus options, Moreno said. The high prices have made it difficult for students like her to find affordable housing without significantly impacting their financial situations.
Moreno said it is difficult to navigate the off-campus housing selection on her own with little to no guidance from the University. She wishes the University gave her and her peers advice to aid with their transition to unwanted off-campus housing. Because there was a lack of support, this was a very stressful time that left her scrambling to find a place to live for the next year.
“It was really difficult because everything we did was independent,” Moreno said. “Just like even small tools to help out with the process, to make it a little bit smoother.”
For students like Moreno, the uncertainty of finding a place to live on or off campus has caused a significant amount of stress. With little help from the University, Moreno said students are left worrying about their future housing troubles rather than their classes and studies.
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The Current Housing Situation
Pepperdine’s housing contracts do not include any off-campus housing options. Students who live on campus can choose between suite-style housing, Seaside Hall, Rockwell Towers, Lovernich Apartments, George Page Apartments and Drescher Campus Apartments, depending on their year in school.
Philip Cho, director of Housing, said there’s an added benefit to living on campus and in community with other Pepperdine students.
“There are a lot of vetted studies that come out and show increased GPA, increased belonging, increased graduation rates if a student chooses to live on campus for a number of years, as opposed to moving off campus,” Cho said.
Given the size of the current undergraduate population, Pepperdine can only house around 60% to 70% of its students, Cho said.
“In an ideal world, we would like to house as many students as we can on campus,” Cho said. “But we work with what we have.”
Cho said HRL tries to be accommodating when deciding who to prioritize on the housing waitlist.
“We do take into account the student factor,” Cho said. “Some things that we look into is, do they have the means to a car? Do they have a driver’s license? Things like that. Or are they an international student?”
While Pepperdine tries to be considerate and offer housing to as many students as they can, housing availability is still a problem for many students.
With the new College of Health Sciences and Pepperdine expecting one of its largest first-year classes in the fall of 2025, housing availability is expected to get more complicated, Cho said. The Housing Office makes adjustments to ensure on-campus housing for all first and second-year students because of the University’s two-year live-on requirement.
“It’s a pretty complex dance with a bunch of people,” Cho said. “We talk with IP to see how many people are gonna be going abroad for the fall and spring semesters. We talk with each of the graduate programs that have spaces that we’ve allocated to them, and see if we need to increase or reduce bed spaces there.”
While Pepperdine accounts for these changes in housing dynamics, without creating more on-campus housing opportunities, off-campus housing will continue to be the reality for many students, regardless of whether they apply for on-campus housing.
Off-campus housing options through the University could provide a space away from campus that still offers a sense of community from living among other students. Off-campus housing may also give students a sense of autonomy and independence that is hard to achieve while living in the dorms.
Infographic by Melissa Houston
Santa Clara University’s Housing Opportunities and Solutions
Over 300 miles away from Pepperdine, Santa Clara University addresses its housing needs differently. SCU created an off-campus housing office in 2018 upon noticing that the need for housing was growing.
“The more a university grows, the less we are able to house all students on campus,” Housing Director Amanda Chavez said.
SCU’s housing process offers multiple tiers of options, according to the University’s website. Students can apply for traditional on-campus housing, villa-style houses shared off campus or neighborhood units, which are university-owned homes in surrounding residential areas. Additionally, the off-campus housing office creates and monitors a list of local apartments that students can access.
“There’s a progression,” Chavez said. “You apply to neighborhood units first. If you’re not placed there, you can apply for the villas, and then on-campus housing. It’s designed to provide multiple chances for placement.”
The process has become more manageable since SCU implemented a two-year residency requirement for first-year and sophomore students, which has eased competition for off-campus housing among upperclassmen, Chavez said. Many students group up, especially members of fraternities and sororities, to rent bigger multi-bedroom homes.
However, it is not without its difficulties.
“When I first started, we got a lot of complaints from neighbors,” Chavez said. “But over the years, we’ve been able to build better relationships. It’s not perfect, but we’ve made progress.”
One major strategy has been communication, Chavez said. Each fall, the office conducts a “Walkabout,” visiting over 100 residences to welcome students, provide information and encourage direct neighborly dialogue.
“We tell students, ‘Introduce yourselves to your neighbors,’” Chavez said. “Give them your contact info. If you’re planning a gathering, let them know. Most issues come down to a lack of communication.”
The office also leads monthly meetings with local stakeholders, including landlords, city officials, code enforcement and the student government, Chavez said.
“You need those partnerships,” Chavez said. “This isn’t work you can do alone.”
Lafayette College Offers Variety and Independence in Student Housing
Lafayette College, a private liberal arts institution located in Easton, Penn., serves approximately 2,700 undergraduate students, according to its website. First-year students are housed in traditional-style dorms, with double and triple rooms and shared hall bathrooms in a community-style setting.
“With a school the size of ours, we found it important to give students the opportunity to have some of that independence we have,” said Terrence Haynes, Associate Director of Residence Life.
As students progress through the years, more housing options become available. Sophomores and upperclassmen can apply to live in the Monroe Neighborhood, a Living Learning Community (LLC) made up of themed houses, according to the college’s website. Each house, operated by the college despite being off-campus, accommodates three students.
“The school has purchased a lot of homes in the area that are very walkable to the campus, like literally right across the street,” Haynes said.
In addition to LLC housing, students can choose suite-style housing, other off-campus three-person houses and, more recently, off-campus apartments, Haynes said.
“We have a variety of housing that we offer,” Haynes said. “We try to give students more independence and autonomy as they move through their college career here.”
The college-operated off-campus housing is billed similarly to on-campus housing, Haynes said. Room rates range from $6,117 to $6,866 per semester, which is lower than the average rate of housing in the area.
“I know private landlords do whatever they want to do,” Haynes said. “They take advantage when they can, especially with students.”
Students are not only encouraged, but guaranteed housing with a seniority-based lottery system due to their four-year residency requirement, Haynes said. Not all students are completely satisfied with their housing methods if their lottery date is later in the process.
“I think there’s a bit of inequity on campus in terms of how nice some spaces may be perceived versus others,” Haynes said.
But overall, Haynes said the majority of students believe Lafayette’s housing methods allow them to have more of a seamless process for independent living.
Students choose Lafayette housing not just for the convenience of its close proximity to campus, but also because it allows them to stay connected to the university community even while living off-campus, Haynes said.
“They still get all the same emails that everybody else would get regarding events that are going on, so they can stay involved,” Haynes said.
Haynes said he encourages universities like Pepperdine to entertain the idea of college-owned off-campus housing.
“Go for it if you can do it,” Haynes said. “It’s something that helps make student bodies happy while being financially stable.”
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Contact Cristal Soto by email: cristal.soto@pepperdine.edu
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Contact Rochelle Williams by email: rochelle.williams@pepperdine.edu
Contact Triniti Gregg by email: triniti.gregg@pepperdine.edu
