Inadequate housing hampers education

Okamura is the external vice president of the Undergraduate
Students Association Council. Dang is the external vice president
of the Graduate Student Association.

By Evan Okamura and Alain
Dang

Construction, construction, construction.

It seems like it’s going on every day here at good old
UCLA. DeNeve Plaza, which was supposed to be completed over a year
ago, is still in the process of construction, as release dates are
continually delayed and students are again forced to live
temporarily in dorm study lounges.

The lack of available campus housing is not only irritating, but
it is an issue of accessibility to education as well.

For example, let’s say “Mike” is living in one
of these study lounges. Often times, residents will study in their
floor study lounge because it provides a close, convenient and
quiet atmosphere to study for their classes.

The study lounges also provide a break from your roommates, who
may be too loud, or who may just not be in a studying mood.
However, Mike doesn’t have this close and convenient outlet
available to him because he lives in the study lounge.

Don’t get me wrong, the blame is definitely not on the
On-Campus Housing Council. If anything, they have done everything
possible to make Mike and other residents like him feel
comfortable. The council even provides outlets for study lounge
residents to vent their frustrations so that they can be alleviated
in a timely fashion.

However, as mentioned earlier, this is only a temporary
situation, meaning that Mike will soon have to pack all his stuff
up again and move to a regular room.

When is Mike going to move? His guess is as good as ours. The
point that we intend to make here, though, is that when he does
move, it’s not only going to be a huge inconvenience, but it
changes his whole environment as well.

Changing his environment will likely affect his academic and
social experience in a negative way. Mike will again have to adjust
to new floormates as well as find a new place to study.

Tidal Wave II, which refers to the increasing number of students
being admitted into the university, continues to play a huge role
in the student-housing crisis. According to the 2000 University of
California Housing Occupancy Report, UCLA is at 115% capacity in
the residence halls, with a capacity of 6,239, and a total of 7,145
residents.

Student housing is a huge issue of access to education for all
students, not just those living in the residence halls. Prices in
the local Westwood area have continued to increase, as rent control
has failed to play a substantial role in controlling costs.

As a result, returning students have been forced to move further
and further away from campus, settling in areas with cheaper rent
such as Palms and West L.A. Adequate housing is not provided for
faculty or staff either.

Similar to the residence hall students mentioned earlier,
students forced to live further away face other barriers to their
education. For example, living further away forces a student to
leave earlier and drive further to get to school. And let’s
not even talk about the criminalization of communities of color,
who are more often than not perceived as criminals rather than
students.

Throughout this crisis, UCLA has made very minimal progress. For
example, the campus has been converting two former for-sale housing
condominium projects into rental housing for faculty and staff, as
current owners offer those units for sale. At completion, these
would provide a measly 52 rental units. Granted, this is better
than nothing. However, this is a very small step in the right
direction.

If the university is to help the housing crisis, officials must
start putting students and student housing first. There is a bill
in the state assembly that would provide subsidized loans to build
student housing ““ a bill that the UC Office of the President
only supports in principal. There are fears that financing student
housing, even indirectly, would make the UC less likely to receive
other funds for research.

Strategic investments in housing and innovative partnerships are
necessary first steps to solving the housing crisis. Such steps
might draw money away from other programs, but this is a necessary
sacrifice that in terms of access benefits the entire
university.

It is also a temporary sacrifice, since housing, unlike academic
buildings, can eventually pay for itself. Our students, faculty and
staff must have adequate living, quality education and even
world-class research.

Putting students and student housing first requires clarity of
vision and strength of leadership that must start from the top with
UC President Richard Atkinson, who has failed thus far.

Without housing, students cannot get an education, and if the
university claims to take education seriously, it needs to start
taking the issue of student housing seriously.