On Wednesday, April 24 Pitzer College informed students in the class of 2027 participating in the room selection process that they had “reached capacity” for housing both on-campus residence halls and in Claremont Collegiate Apartments (CCA). Students who had not yet picked their rooms were told they would be placed on a waitlist to secure housing.
Pitzer Residence Life sent personally addressed identical emails to each of the students who were unable to select a room. In them, they apologized for the emotional distress caused and assured the students that steps were being taken to accommodate them.
“We want to start off by saying we apologize for the stress and whirlwind of emotions you may be feeling right now but do know that we are working hard to assign you to housing,” the email read.
The email also said that they anticipate “having spaces open up and/or acquiring new spaces,” however, they will be unable to know until next week.
Despite the possibility of securing housing later, many students still expressed frustration at their current situation. Noah Pershing PZ ’27, like many Pitzer students, entered the portal in a “suite group” with three other friends. He said they want to stay together, but, more importantly, that they want to be on campus.
“Hopefully we stay all four of us together because I think that’s what we agreed on,” Pershing said. “But if I end up with none of these guys, I’d better be … on campus.”
Pershing said he is most discouraged by the lack of communication between the college and the students currently without housing, noting that he wants more transparency from the Residence Life Office.
“I would love to have them tell us what [our] options are, like what we might end up getting,” Pershing said.
A lack of transparency seems to be a deeper issue for Pitzer’s Residence Life Office as it is unclear in the college’s policy whether or not housing is guaranteed.
Pitzer’s Residence Hall Agreement, only explicitly states that “the College guarantees housing to all first-year students,” and makes no mention of a housing guarantee for students in other grades.
The agreement also offers some clarity on procedure in situations such as this one, but it does not provide tangible solutions for the current crisis.
“If residence halls are filled, the College reserves the right to place students temporarily in overflow housing until regular space is available,” the website reads.
There is currently no “overflow housing” listed for students unable to participate in room draw.
However, this is not conveyed to prospective students. According to Harold Fuson PZ ’26, a tour guide at Pitzer College, the script written for guides states that housing is guaranteed for all four years.
“In the tour guide script it says that Pitzer offers guaranteed housing for all four years,” Fuson said.
According to Fuson, many students do not consider CCA, roughly a mile away from Pitzer’s main campus, “on-campus housing,” and even that is not currently an option for those waiting for housing.
“CCA is included in their guaranteed on-campus housing, but apparently [even] CCA is full this year,” he said.
Fuson also said that tour guides are instructed to inform visiting families that about 87 percent of students choose to live on campus each year. He noted that living on campus provides a strong sense of community, which is a big selling point for the college.
“[At Pitzer] all of the dorms are right next to each other and so even if you’re not living in the same dorm as some of your closest friends you’ll be within a 30-second walk from all of them,” Fuson said. “There’s a lot of community building that comes from that spontaneity of being able to run into someone in the study room or go say ‘hi’ to someone late at night that you might lose if you’re living off-campus.”
Fuson suggested that the crisis stemmed from the upcoming national May 1 deadline for the class of 2028 to commit to college. Before the college knows the exact size of its incoming first-year class, there remains uncertainty in determining how many rooms to reserve to ensure its guaranteed first-year housing promise can be met.
“It’s my understanding that’s what’s causing this problem,” Fuson said. “To my knowledge, incoming first-years have guaranteed housing.”
Resident Assistants (RA) at Pitzer also felt strongly about this issue and expressed that Pitzer’s trend of over-enrollment continues to alienate students and put them in anxiety-producing situations.
“I think it is messed up how Pitzer continues to do this cyclically,” an RA, who asked to stay anonymous due to fear of their job security, said. “I have seen the uncertainty of housing assignments induce real distress in my residents. They did something very similar to the class of 2025 — that is why we had the ‘CCA 24.’”
The “CCA 24” refers to the 24 Pitzer students in the class of 2025 whose on-campus housing assignments were revoked and they were forced to CCA to make room for the overenrolled class of 2026. The same trend continues as members of the class of 2027 remain in housing limbo.
Pitzer’s Class of 2025 President Sara Kimura PZ ’25, explained that students part of the CCA 24 all originally had housing assignments in an on-campus dorm and that their move to CCA left them with little support from Pitzer offices.
“Housing and the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) literally did not have a shuttle system that started before 9 or 10 a.m.,” Kimura stated in an email to TSL. “It was an issue that students had classes before the shuttle would start, but [OSA] would constantly argue that CCA was not that inconvenient, as the shuttle is always there to serve them.”
Kimura elaborated that this recurring practice of pushing students to CCA causes a rupture in the Pitzer community.
“I know from my own conversations with [the Residence Life Office], that they believe CCA is a highly desirable choice for upperclassmen, as it is apartment living with training wheels,” Kimura said. “However, they fail to recognize that Pitzer sells itself as a close-knit community and advertises that the majority of students live on campus, which most students do not see CCA as a part of.”
The RA also acknowledged the amount of strain on the Residence Life staff that the administration’s decision to over-enroll puts on them.
“It has been so stressful working at the Residence Life front desk,” they said. “We have been putting up with a great deal of angry parents and people who are so frustrated with their living situation. That goes for both us as student employees and our professional staff coworkers in the office.”
Another RA, who also requested anonymity, noted the lack of knowledge that they and their colleagues have about the resident housing portal.
“The last day of housing registration I had a couple of students come in asking about their housing, and I felt bad not being able to provide a useful answer that would leave them feeling a bit better about their situation,” they said in an email to TSL. “At the end of the day, the most I can do is direct them to the housing email and wish them good luck.”
Complicating the housing portal further, there was a suspected glitch that caused lottery times to be incorrectly assigned. In a March 26 email from the Pitzer Residence Life Office titled “So I’ve Submitted My Housing App…Now What?,” it explained that housing selection times would be April 23 from 4-7 p.m. for class of 2025, April 24 at 4-7 p.m. for class of 2026 and April 25 at 4-7 p.m. for class of 2027. However, this suspected glitch made it so that both the class of 2025 and 2026 were assigned lottery times for April 23. This change came as a surprise for many students in the class of 2026 who were prepared to register the next day.
“Honestly, I was surprised when I saw my lottery time was on the 23rd,” said Anya M. Sharma PZ ’26 in an email to TSL. “I thought it was supposed to be on the 24th, but I just went with it.”
Amidst vague policy language, residence portal glitches and over-enrolling, members of the Pitzer class of 2027 without housing assignments remain with more questions than answers. As a result another rising sophomore class is left grappling with the consequences of decisions made by Pitzer administration.
“Regardless of the housing process, the rising sophomore class is always left the scraps, with CCA being the least attractive due to the isolation from the main campus … Pitzer students [are] in a repeated cycle of an unsatisfying housing system,” Kimura said.
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