Frustrations mount for students looking for housing on CSU Monterey Bay’s campus.

The last days of a semester can be stressful for a college student, who must balance prepping final presentations, studying for exams and making plans for summer. For many CSU Monterey Bay students, this semester has an added stressor: They may not have a place to live next semester.

Changes in the application process, increased demand and a glitch in the system are causing anger and frustration among students.

On April 28, a newly unveiled otter statue on campus was vandalized. It was wrapped in toilet paper and tagged with black ink with phrases such as “fix housing” and “money hungry fucks,” alluding to the housing woes students were facing.

The same day, CSUMB President Vanya Quiñones condemned the vandalism: “Actions such as these divide our community and are not in alignment with our Cal State Monterey Bay values of engaging in respectful and productive dialogues,” she wrote.

The next day, Quiñones addressed housing challenges in a follow-up email to the campus community. “The current housing demand reflects broader trends that extend beyond the housing department’s control, and it highlights the exciting growth and evolving needs of our university community,” she wrote. Factors include increased enrollment, students with a disability seeking special accommodations, and housing prices in the region. “Our goal remains clear – to do everything we can to help ensure our students have access to campus housing.”

CSUMB announced on social media that as of May 2, it cleared its housing waiting list and encouraged students to check their emails.

But Luis Sedano, 20, a sophomore who switched his major to accounting, says he doesn’t have accommodations for next semester as of May 5. Sedano says he and about six other students were added to a waiting list, but didn’t have a number.

“We’re just told that we’re on a waitlist, that’s all,” he says. “I thought that things would go pretty well for us until Friday, when CSUMB posted [on Instagram] that they had cleared everyone off the waitlist, but there were some of us that still hadn’t gotten housing.”

Sedano was hoping to stay on campus but is now looking for alternatives, such as staying with relatives in Salinas. But without a car, that could add about an hour commute each way.

Since demand has climbed over the years, CSUMB will no longer require sophomores to stay in campus housing next year. (Since 1995, CSUMB required full-time freshmen and sophomores to live in campus housing.) The school is also lodging more students per unit and considering short-term hotel lodging. It also started renovations of Gavilan Hall that will increase housing stock in the fall.

CSUMB offers housing to more than 50 percent of its student body. That’s higher than the CSU average, which is 14 percent as of fall 2023, according to a state analysis.

According to the student newspaper The Lutrinae, CSUMB moved away from a unit-based priority system (students with more units ranked higher on the list) to a queuing system similar to Ticketmaster.

Students called for a protest on May 1 in front of the housing office. More than a dozen showed up and sat on the grass, while many others were celebrating Otter Thursday in front of the Otter Student Union.