USD residential housing to return to typical operations for the 2021- 2022 academic year

Residential life reinstates housing requirement for all incoming first-years and rising sophomores

Karisa Kampbell / Asst. News Editor / The USD Vista

As the Spring semester comes to a close, students begin to optimistically make plans for the Fall 2021 semester. Through the uncertainty of the pandemic that students are still facing, planning for the future proves difficult to do. Students are expected to make decisions on class schedules and housing with limited information on what the Fall 2021 semester will look like. 

Currently, students are in the midst of the housing application process for the Fall 2021 semester. Due to the pandemic, housing capacity this past academic year has been extremely limited, only allowing around 1,000 students to be living on campus this semester. However, USD plans to be able to have a housing capacity in the fall closer to that of a typical academic year. 

Although USD is working toward returning to an as-close-to-normal on-campus housing approach for next year, some types of living arrangements will still not be offered, as clarified by Director of Residential Administration Brandon McCreary.  

“We are going back to what a typical occupancy year would look like for us, with the exception that we will not be doing any triple or quad bedrooms across campus,” McCreary said. “Most of our apartments are for four people, but we do not consider those quads. Those would be like two bedrooms or two doubles.”

While the university made an exception to this policy for the 2020-2021 academic year, all incoming first-years and rising sophomores will be required to live on campus next year.

McCreary assures that USD will be able to house everyone under the reinstatement of this policy.

“We are reinstating the residency requirement next year for first-years, but also for the current first-years, the rising sophomore class,” McCreary said. “We wouldn’t be doing that if we didn’t feel like we know we can house all of those students.”

Current first-year student Claudette Kankindi provided her thoughts about the on-campus housing requirement.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Kankindi said. “Many now first-years have not really gotten the chance to experience the school for what it fully is.”

Upper-classmen housing will make a return to mostly normal operations, while first-year housing and the San Antonio Padua (SAP) apartments will still continue to look different.

“Camino/Founders and Maher have always had some one-bedroom quad rooms so we will not be doing those. Camino/Founders when it reopens this year and Maher will all be just single and doubles,” McCreary said. “SAP is another major building that will be affected. Those apartments that are usually large one-bedrooms for three people will only be for two people.”

With Maher returning to its use as a first-year residence hall, the University is still considering options as to what quarantine housing will look like for next semester and how necessary it will be. 

“The intent is that Maher will come back online for first-year students. And then we will likely use one of our other areas for quarantine,” McCreary stated. “The hope and the expectation with the way that the pandemic is moving and vaccinations is that there will be far less need for quarantine and isolation space.”

As an alternative to on-campus housing this year, USD worked with two off-campus apartment complexes to provide students who were supposed to live on campus with off-campus options through the University. For the 2021-2022 academic year, there are currently no plans to keep the contracts with these complexes. 

“We will not be working with Loma Palisades again,” McCreary said. “The company was great to work with when we just needed extra housing, but it was tough because it is far away. It was great, it helped students for this year for sure, but I don’t think it was what the students are looking for moving forward.”

Similarly, plans regarding the use of Pacific Ridge for student housing next semester has not been finalized.

“Pacific Ridge is still up in the air,” McCreary said. “We are waiting for people to finish applying because there is a chance that if we have more applicants than places for them we might use Pacific Ridge. But as of right now we have not made that decision yet.”

Despite all the uncertainty that the pandemic still garners, USD is confident in its plan for residential housing next semester. 

“We will be able to offer housing to most anybody who wants it,” McCreary said. 

The changes being made to residential housing next semester may not be a complete return to typical operations, however it is a promising sign for a somewhat normal fall semester.