Campus Living restricts summer housing, enforces residency requirement

In an April 1 email to residential students, Campus Living announced updates to housing options for the 2021-22 academic year, including the limited availability of housing for Summer 2021, the requirement that sophomores living off campus must return to on-campus housing and the implementation of a new virtual housing portal.

Only students who meet specific criteria will be considered for on-campus housing this summer, such as students taking in-person summer classes, students with on-campus research projects or international students who cannot leave campus.

“A critical portion of the decision was related to the extremely limited availability of on-campus services in the summer,” Assistant Dean of Student Engagement Rocky Campbell said via email. “With no health service, no counseling service, no regular COVID-19 testing, and no dining service available, it was decided we needed to limit housing to those in our community who need it and ask that students pursue other opportunities when available.”

Eli Bricknell ’23 was hoping to acquire on-campus housing for the summer after applying for a summer job with on-campus components. However, as Campus Living did not announce summer housing options until April, Bricknell and his partner had to pursue off-campus housing, which has been difficult.

“I think it would be nice to have the option to live on campus, but I’ve already put in so much to find a place off campus, and that already fell through,” Bricknell said. “I think (Campus Living) needs to be more communicative. Not telling us (until) a month before the semester’s over, when things schoolwork-wise are stacking up … and I’m expected to find somewhere to live in three weeks.”

Campus Living’s email also notified students who have not fulfilled their residential requirement of living on campus for four semesters that they must fulfill this requirement. In Summer 2020, Lewis & Clark offered current sophomores the option to live off-campus for a year in order to increase the availability of on-campus housing, and it is now required that these students return to complete their four-semester requirement.

“The expectation of students completing the 4 semester of on-campus living is directly tied to the positive outcomes of living on campus during the first years and the consistent revenue expectations for the College of a 2 year live-on requirement to the overall budget,” Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Robin Holmes-Sullivan said via email. “This is why we clearly broadcast this expectation to incoming students and why we specifically let students know about this expectation if they decided to defer the live-on requirement during COVID.”

Ava Westlin ’23 has been living off campus this year. The independence she has gained by living off-campus, as well as the negative impact that living on campus had on her physical and mental health have made her reluctant to potentially have to return to on-campus housing. She has contacted Campus Living to request an exemption from the housing requirement, but has yet to receive conclusive information.

According to Westlin, a solution for these students could be a buy-out option that would waive the remainder of the housing requirement.

“They let us know that it is a money issue, and the number of students they need to live on campus will depend on the number of new students in the freshman class, (and) they will have that number by May 5th,” Westlin said via email.

Westlin does not expect to hear anything conclusive before May 5. Once information about incoming freshmen is available, Westlin is planning to send a letter to Campus Living detailing why she and other current sophomores living off-campus should be exempt from completing the housing requirement. She has gotten “overwhelming support” from other current sophomores. 

As Campus Living works to plan for housing for the 2021-22 academic year, they have introduced a housing portal that allows returning students to select specific rooms and roommates. A final decision about how incoming first-years will sign up for housing has yet to be made, but according to Campbell, it will hopefully be “easier, simpler, and quicker.”

“In addition to the online room selection features and roommate matching features that returning students have seen during the housing sign-up process this semester, our new platform will allow for improvements in the move-in/move-out process next year and our office’s ability to communicate and work with students in the future,” Campbell said via email.