In a protest that drew nearly 200 students Friday afternoon at UC Santa Cruz, the Student Housing Coalition and its supporters marched to Clark Kerr Hall and taped a list of demands to the locked doors. They included more transparency in the housing assignment process, building more housing, and a four-year guarantee of housing for all students.
The protest comes after students signed up for on-campus housing this week, and many were left perplexed when, despite being on the priority list, their preferred housing type was not available — and many believed they would not get the on-campus housing that the university guaranteed.
The confusion arose from the university’s website, according to campus spokesman Scott Hernandez-Jason. “As students went to select what housing they wanted, if what they wanted wasn’t available, it would say it’s not available,” Hernandez-Jason said. “It wasn’t clear that students would still have an offer to live on campus.”
It may be weeks to months before students receive their campus housing offer, leaving many in fear of not being able to secure housing in the off-campus market.
Zennon Ulyate-Crow, the president of the Student Housing Coalition, took the megaphone in front of locked glass doors that house the university’s administration offices.
“We shouldn’t be having to fight for basic needs,” Ulyate-Crow said. “It’s unfathomable that one in ten students at our university do not have a place to live.”
