Chapman expands undergraduate housing further while continuing to offer limited options to graduate students
With the creation of Chapman Court, a new housing option for undergraduate students, there is still a lack of graduate student housing options, even though they are very much in demand. Photo by SIMRAH AHMAD, Staff Photographer
In fall 2022, Chapman University announced that it had purchased the Anavia Apartments complex for undergraduate students. However, the university had still not created any housing options for graduate students.
Almost two years later, as the new apartment complex, now called Chapman Court, prepares to open to students for the fall 2024 semester, there is still limited on-campus housing in Panther Village for graduate students.
Aaron Grossman is a first-year graduate student in the creative writing program at Chapman who also went here as an undergraduate student. Grossman explained how he has been living in a house off campus with roommates. He has currently been looking for an additional roommate in order to be able to keep the house.
Grossman shared his thoughts on Chapman’s lack of graduate housing options in comparison to the various undergraduate housing options the school offers.
“I have to admit it does seem a little bit ridiculous that one of the main draws for people coming to the campus for the undergraduate programs is that it requires two years of living on campus. Yet, for graduate students, there is essentially no accommodation in the slightest, as opposed to even the last two years of the undergraduate program.”
Juan Tinoco is the assistant dean for the Office of Residence Life and First Year Experience. He explained why there has been a primary focus on expanding only undergraduate housing over the last few years.
“There are two reasons why we see the importance of providing undergraduate housing. (One is) having the undergraduate population be engaged and providing them with the resources they need. A lot of elite schools have a residential requirement, and it’s part of the vision of Chapman University. The other reason is we’re still committed to our agreement with the City of Orange to house 50% of our undergraduate population.”
The agreement between the City of Orange and Chapman states that 50% of undergraduate students are required to take part in on-campus housing. The hope of this agreement is to reduce parking and traffic issues for local Orange residents. However, the agreement does not extend to the graduate student population.
To help mitigate the issue of a lack of graduate student housing options, Tinoco recommended graduate students use a third-party website that was launched in the past year, called Off-Campus Housing, to help them find potential places to live.
Nana Amuah is a first-year graduate student in the showrunner program at Chapman. Amuah did not attend Chapman as an undergrad, and she decided to move across the country from the East Coast to attend, meaning that housing was a top priority for her when she was admitted.
Amuah first attempted to find housing on the Off-Campus Housing website, which was recommended by Residence Life and First Year Experience. On the website, she noticed that many of the listings were out of date or had not been updated when she tried reaching out to the listers.
After contacting Residence Life, Amuah was told to join the “Chapman University Housing, Sublets and Roommates” and “Chapman University Off-Campus Housing” Facebook groups to see other potential listings.
“For any prospective student — graduate or undergraduate — looking for an apartment, I would not recommend these groups at all. The moderation on them is extremely lax, and they’ve become overrun with scammers seeking to take advantage. I had joined one on the recommendation of Residence Life and wound up getting scammed by someone for over $1,000, and it really seemed like I wouldn’t be able to attend after all.”
Amuah believes that Chapman should be helping graduate students out more with finding housing.
“Chapman needs to either offer a space in its housing for graduate students or step in to ensure that looking for apartments (for students) is a safer process,” Amuah said. “The university has a hands-off approach that puts students at risk.”
She continued: “The issues with the Off-Campus Housing database and the Facebook groups affect undergraduates as well and need to be addressed, but right now, graduates have no alternatives at all offered from Chapman.”
Tinoco explained that there will be a pilot program launching this fall for new and incoming graduate students to have a chance to live on campus. This program will include 73 spaces near the Orange campus for graduate students.
Each graduate program will be given a certain amount of spaces located in the undergraduate housing buildings depending on the size of the program. The program has been added to help gauge future directions with housing.
Students who are interested in potentially receiving graduate housing next school year should directly contact their program to learn more while also continuing to look for other housing options as well. More information about the pilot program can be found on the Graduate Student Housing page.
Tinoco stated that there are currently no plans to create a graduate-only housing building in the future and that the pilot program will help determine future steps.
“As far as my knowledge, we don’t have any plans to add more additional graduate housing, and we’re going to see how this pilot program goes and also see the needs of our undergraduate students. We want every student to be housed, and we don’t want anybody to struggle to find housing.”
Any graduate or undergraduate student who is experiencing difficulties with housing is encouraged to reach out to Chapman’s housing services department at reslife@chapman.edu.
