Life on Campus Amid COVID-19

By Liz MacDonald

Student Housing provides security, support for those with nowhere else to go

When the CSU announced most instruction would be delivered remotely for the remainder of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of the roughly 3,600 CSUMB students who usually live on campus left. But a subset of the student population had no place else to go.

Some lived in the family units available on East Campus with their young children. International students faced travel restrictions and were unable to return to their countries of origin. Others were former foster youth who counted on the campus to provide housing. Still others, just months away from earning their degrees, would have had their graduation jeopardized by losing their housing.

Fifteen percent of CSUMB students self-identify as housing insecure for a number of complex reasons. The university staff in the Department of Student Housing and Residential Life wanted to make sure that those students had access to safe and secure housing.

“Even in the most dire situations, we have to find a way to support those students,” Director Jeff Cooper said. “It was important that we stay open, but we had to figure out how to do that and maintain safety.”

Read more in the CSUMB magazine.