Special Notice Concerning the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

July 9, 2020
For important updates on UC Santa Barbara campus safety precautions and associated information from county, state, and federal public health officials, please visit UCSB's COVID-19 information page and the CDC's COVID-19 website.
 
We are partnering with health officials and the campus to determine how many students we can safely house in each of our residences this Fall. This process is ongoing and evolving as we learn more about COVID-19 and adjust our response accordingly. Student safety is of paramount concern to us as we continue developing protocols that are aligned with local, state and national health guidelines and reflect best practices.
 
For more information about our COVID housing initiatives, please see below. For information about the housing contract process, please visit https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/covid-19-information. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.
 
  • Extend move in process over longer time, with only 5-11 families arriving per hour
  • Have a self-serve move-in process
  • Issue every resident a cloth facial covering at move-in
  • Require residents to wear a facial covering when outside their room
  • Provide extra paper masks at the front desk of residence halls
  • Have touchless thermometers available at front desk of residence halls
  • Require all residents to use the hand sanitizer when entering the residence halls
  • Reduce lounge occupancy significantly, space furniture out for social distancing
  • Open window in lounges for more air flow
  • Install touchless faucets in all bathrooms
  • Clean bathrooms four times a day
  • Have occupancy limits in community bathrooms
  • Reduce occupancy of elevators
  • Provide COVID community living standards/expectations to all residents in advance - a guide which outlines expectations and rules around social distancing, etc.
  • Ask students to bring lawn chairs, for occasional hall meetings held outside
  • Create social distancing squares on the large meeting lawns around the residence halls
  • Have available space for immediate self-isolation for students who test positive for COVID
  • Require residents to follow all directions of health officials
  • Have testing available for residents
  • Provide drop off meal service for students in isolation
  • Provide sack meals for students with underlying health concerns
  • Strictly limit seating in the dining hall for social distancing
  • No self-service of food in dining hall
  • Increased sanitizing of dining hall
  • Increase meal hours to spread out diners over a longer time frame
  • Hold on-line meetings with students, and on-line student government meetings
  • Install plexiglass partitions for front desks and offices 

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Comments

International Freshman Housing

Submitted by Zoe Chang on

Hi, I have some questions. Is housing not guaranteed fall 2020? Do my room and roommate preferences on the housing contract matter? How do I request for the roommates I want? Are triples not allowed anymore? When will room assignments be announced (I would like to buy my plane ticket as soon as possible) ? Do international/out of state students get priority for housing? Do you recommend finding apartments in Isla Vista? If I don't get a dorm, what are the next steps? Thank you, Zoe

housing

Submitted by jlevangie on

Hi Zoe, I see that you also emailed the webmaster and one of our front desk attendants answered your questions. One resource they didn't provide is a link to community rental listings. Here's that info: https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/community-housing-services-general-information. Please know we realize how stressful this is for you. We are partnering with health officials and the campus to determine how many students we can safely house in each type of housing space in the Fall. This process is ongoing and evolving as we learn more about COVID-19 and adjust our response accordingly. Student safety is of paramount concern as we continue this inquiry. Thank you for your continued patience and stay well.

Housing Notifications

Submitted by Jennifer Lyn Kelly on

Good Afternoon, Just wanted to see if the university had an idea on when they would be notifying students on who will be awarded housing? Thank you.

housing notifications

Submitted by jlevangie on

We anticipate that campus leadership will give direction following an announcement by the Governor hopefully by the end of this week. Once we get final approval to move forward with plans for opening, we are prepared to act swiftly to get contract offers out within a couple days. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We know this is a very stressful situation.

Housing

Submitted by Rhonda Collier Hope on

We did not hear from you at the end of last week, does that mean my freshman son will not be offered housing? Will you let students who are waiting to hear about housing if the did not get housing as well as if they did? If not, how are we going to know when to pursue other alternatives? This is a stressful situation indeed.

housing

Submitted by jlevangie on

Hi Rhonda, I'm very sorry. We haven't sent any updates, so your son could still potentially receive housing. We will definitely notify everyone whether or not they receive housing as soon as we are given the approval to proceed with offering contracts. Again, our apologies. We know this is creating a tremendous amount of stress for everyone.

housing notifications

Submitted by jlevangie on

Hi, please have your student check their u-mail. Emails are going out today in batches. In the meantime, you can also find information here: https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/covid-19-information

Housing Winter Quarter 2021

Submitted by Joanne Lucas on

What if I decide to stay home fall quarter and need housing winter quarter? Would the contract give me that option?

winter housing

Submitted by jlevangie on

Hi, you'll need to fill out a winter housing application starting in October: https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/contracts/winter-spring. The academic year contract that starts in fall will not give you that option.

Graduate student housing

Submitted by Kay on

Hello, In your planning, will you please consider extending the cancellation deadline for graduate students as well? The July 15th deadline was prior to many departments making decisions about remote/in-person Fall course formats. Also, for those of us who do have Fall contracts, would it be possible to guarantee our housing for this Winter if we should cancel our Fall contracts (perhaps by using the spaces for temporary socially-distanced undergraduate housing)? Please consider this if it is possible, it would really provide some ease of mind for having to cancel outside out of our control and missing out on the guaranteed housing we received our Fall contracts under. My plans for moving in the Fall are not looking safe, as one of my family members is immunocompromised. Another example is that some international students seem to have had to cancel plans to move in the Fall due to their consulate being closed during this period and not being able to obtain VISAs. Thank you

graduate student housing

Submitted by jlevangie on

UPDATE: The deadline to cancel contracts has been extended to September 1. ------------------------------------------------- Hi Kay, I'll pass on your suggestions and concerns to our contracts folks in University & Community Housing Services. In the meantime, we highly recommend that you contact them directly as well. They can be reached at housinginfo@housing.ucsb.edu or 805-893-4371. Thanks!

Transfer Student Housing

Submitted by Zack Lossing on

Hello, is there any update at all with housing at UCSB. Seeing that it’s almost August I’d really like to know whether I’ll need to search for housing outside of university apartments or not.

transfer student housing

Submitted by jlevangie on

Hi Zack, I apologize, there are no updates to give at this time. We're still waiting for guidance from the State. Once we get final approval to move forward with plans for opening, we are prepared to act swiftly to get contract offers out within a couple days. We understand the stress that comes from this uncertain time and thank you for your patience. Stay safe and have a nice day.

Housing, student insurance, and tuition deadlines

Submitted by Hsuehling Chen on

The deadline to waive UCSB student insurance is 9/1. The deadline to pay Fall 2020 tuition is 9/15. Fall classes begin on 10/1. The only reason we will pay $3,453 for the student insurance is that your on campus clinic does not accept other insurance that we have including BCBS. When will we know if the student will get a room from UCSB Housing or not? If the student will not get a room from UCSB Housing, we would like to waive the student insurance. Thanks, Hsuehling

housing deadlines

Submitted by jlevangie on

Hi, please have your student check their u-mail. Emails are going out today in batches. In the meantime, you can also find information here: https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/covid-19-information

Possible Univ housing contract cancellation

Submitted by Becky on

Since we have not yet heard whether my daughter will be allowed to live in the Univ owned apt she selected for this year, we are considering cancelling the housing contract and going with an apt in IV. Is cancellation still an option until 9/1? And will the fee be the same as it is listed on the housing website? ($350)

Housing contract cancellation

Submitted by jlevangie on

Hi, have your student check their u-mail for an email that's going out today. Most of the info in the email is also on this web page: https://www.housing.ucsb.edu/covid-19-information. Cancellation is still an option and there is no fee provided it's done prior to September 1st. The website hasn't been updated to reflect this yet. Thank you!

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Housing, Dining & Auxiliary Enterprises
1501 Residential Services
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6130
805-893-2760