University Housing stiffens exemption criteria, leaving students uncertain

As first-year students began receiving their on-campus housing exemption decisions this year, some were surprised and frustrated by denials they had not expected. In previous years, exemption criteria was broader and allowed for appeals once a decision was made, but this year Cal Poly University Housing changed the process. 

University Housing now requires a FAFSA for proof of financial need and does not allow for appeals. The decision was made to make exemptions more equitable, according to University Housing spokesperson Chris DeMoville. However, some students feel it leaves less room for individual circumstances.

First-year students in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences; College of Engineering; and College of Architecture and Environmental Design are required to live on-campus their second year. Student-athletes, Cal Poly Scholars and TRIO Achievers will also have to live on-campus for two years.

For international student Luca Fontes, the updates to the financial exemption criteria have put him and other international students in a confused state.

As an environmental management and protection major paying the high costs of international tuition, any savings he and his family can get matters. Fontes found a place off-campus that could save him nearly $1,000 per month, and he attempted to file for an exemption underneath the financial need category, but had a hard time proving financial need. 

“I don’t have any family members or anyone that lives here that pays for taxes or any service, so I can’t apply for financial aid, which would help with the exemption,” Fontes said.

Fontes visited multiple different offices on campus, including University Housing, the Disability Resource Center, Financial Aid and Dean of Students, searching for help to receive an exemption. 

DeMoville says the criteria of housing exemptions itself have not changed, but they were modified to ensure exemptions are applied fairly, consistently and in alignment with the established standards. 

However, the elimination of the exemption review committee and appeals process has removed the flexibility from a process that can carry significant financial consequences. Without the opportunity for case-by-case review, students who do not meet the criteria have little formal recourse. 

In the exemption committee review process, “requests were reviewed holistically, which often meant evaluating a wide range of personal narratives and supporting documentation,” DeMoville said. “While this approach was intended to be responsive to individual situations, it ultimately introduced subjectivity and inconsistency into decision-making.”

The exemption appeals process has been discontinued. Since the criteria has been changed to be objective, exemptions are determined by whether a student meets the standard or does not, and DeMoville said allowing for appeals would negate that change. University Housing is aiming to create a process that is clear, predictable and applied the same way for all students, according to DeMoville. 

Reece Denham, a nutrition freshman and member of Greek life, was denied her exemption within three hours of sending it in. 

“I’ll say I’ll live with my sister, I had a letter that she wrote saying ‘I hereby state that Reece Denham will live with me, I put in her electricity bill.” Denham said, “About three hours later, they declined it.” 

Denham initially sought an exemption for the ease of being able to participate in Greek life. Before filing for an exemption, she had talked to many upperclassmen who had previously got an exemption and thought it would be a simple process. Her plan was to say she was going to live off campus with her sister, who is also a student at Cal Poly, for the next year. However, her home address on the Cal State application was not her sister’s, and University Housing denied the exemption due to the new local address criteria. With the appeals process being eliminated, Denham was left with no other choices. 

Changes to broader university housing plans

As written in Cal Poly’s 2035 Master Plan, the university has started the phasing of requiring certain groups live on campus for two years. The Master Plan outlines the goals Cal Poly wants to achieve by the year 2035 — which includes 65% of students living on campus. Previously, only certain colleges and programs were required to live on campus for two. Now, for the incoming class of 2030 and beyond, it will expand to all students. 

University Housing’s reasoning for the requirement is to deepen students’ connections to campus life, foster collaboration and strengthen the Learn by Doing experience. They hope it will alleviate pressure on the San Luis Obispo housing market and the the similarity to Deltopia which has been a concern for city officials for many years. 

San Luis Obispo County officials have been working towards creating programs to find solutions for the infrastructure shortage in San Luis Obispo and surrounding cities. The shortage has many Cal Poly students start looking at housing and filling out applications in the end of fall quarter and start signing leases as early as January. 

The Critiques of the On-Campus Housing Process

Cal Poly typically opens the request forms for exemptions in early January. The interest list for students who are not required to live their second year on campus but would like to add their names opened Feb. 12. Residential advisor results came out mid-February, according to University Housing. The timeline of these processes leaves little wiggle room for students who may not know about their RA decision to find adequate housing and sign a lease while competing with thousands of other students. 

Although many students received denials, a first-year college of agriculture, food, and environmental sciences student, who requested to remain anonymous due to discussing a disability, successfully received her exemption under the medical circumstance category. Her process began before the exemption request form opened in December. She got approval from the Disability Resource Center prior to the application opening so that she knew she was approved before January, and she was clear to sign a lease elsewhere.

The DRC offered her accommodations such as choice for unit location and size within on-campus housing before approving the exemption. 

“I was ahead of the game, before most people were thinking about it. I don’t know what it would be like filing it in early January, when the majority of people did,” she said.

A contributing factor to the criteria clarification was to allow decisions to be made efficiently across a large volume of requests. It may be efficient, but it can still leave students in limbo due to the time of year the decisions are released. Denham saw her friends looking for off-campus housing in November and signing leases early winter quarter, while her parents would not allow her to sign a lease until she officially got an exemption. 

“It was just a lot of, like, unknown for a while,” Denham said, “It would be nice to be able to have [exemptions] happen earlier in the year because you can’t control when all of the students are going to figure out their housing in the neighborhoods.”

This story originally appeared in the March printed edition of Mustang News. Check out more stories  from the issue here.