High demand for on-campus housing means some students must live in residence hall lounges for the first time. Overflowing housing occupies normal floor lounge space, now transformed into rooms capable of housing up to four students.
Both Chapultepec and Tenochca residence halls no longer have communal floor lounges.
San Diego State accepted 4,100 new students this semester, which is more than have been accepted in recent semesters, according to Patricia Francisco, director of the Office of Housing Administration.
These lounges are priced the same as a double in a regular room. The OHA made very little money by housing these extra students because of the thousands of dollars used to set up and take down the overflow housing.
“This is not as financially beneficial for us as you would think; we don’t do it for that reason,” Francisco said. “We do it because we know if you are a new student here and want to live on campus, we hate to turn you away.”
The OHA was able to accommodate all but three students as of last Thursday. Chapultepec was able to house 40 extra students and Tenochca was able to house 32.
According to the SDSU housing website, the residence halls are advertised as including a lounge. However, because the lounges are no longer available, Francisco said Cholula Hall is an acceptable meeting place.
“We have to sit down and weigh options,” Francisco said. “What is more important: telling students, ‘Yes, we have a place for you to live at SDSU,’ or for people to temporarily not have a floor lounge?”
Last semester, SDSU President Stephen L. Weber implemented a rule requiring any student from outside the San Diego area to live on campus. However, the rule will not be implemented this spring, Francisco said. Students were sent an Overflow Addendum and an Overflow Housing Information packet, which explained they were going to be offered a spot in the overflow housing and were able to make the choice of whether it was right for them. All but one or two students accepted the housing.
According to the packet, if a permanent room assignment becomes available, students are given an opportunity to decide whether they would like to move out of the lounges.
Usually, SDSU requires a student to accept the permanent room assignment, but because SDSU has never had overflow for more than one semester, this year they are giving students a choice, Francisco said. Overflow is typically handled in the fall and by the spring, all the students have moved out of the lounges.
According to the packet, the lounges offer the same furniture, privacy and security as a regular room.
