UC Santa Cruz students report the worst mental health of any University of California campus.<\/p>\n
I was stunned to learn this, given the campus\u2019s idyllic, summer-camp-like setting amid the redwoods, its ocean views and Disney-like proximity to grazing deer and wild turkeys. Yet, according to data from state surveys<\/a>, Banana Slugs are the most unhappy and dissatisfied students in the UC system.<\/p>\n Since 2014, UCSC students have struggled more than their peers across the UC system \u2014 showing difficulty focusing on their studies and some of the highest rates of physical health problems interfering with academics. UCSC undergraduates report the most stress and depression of any campus, with two-thirds in 2024 saying that these challenges disrupted their education, according to UC Office of the President surveys<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to UCSC\u2019s own Healthy Campus<\/a> initiative, the university \u201cconsistently ranks highest for student stress, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and drug use compared to other UC campuses.\u201d Faculty<\/a>, too, \u201cgrapple with stress and anxiety personally but also in supporting students in their classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n The numbers are sobering.\u00a0<\/p>\n 34% of undergraduates regretted<\/a> enrolling at UCSC in 2024 \u2014the highest of any UC campus by a wide margin.<\/p>\n 40% and 38% of graduate students<\/a>, polled in 2021 and 2023, respectively, felt unable to balance work and family life, the worst percentages in the UCs.\u00a0<\/p>\n 66% of undergraduates worried about paying rent in 2024, and 16% said housing insecurity interfered with their studies<\/a> \u2014 again, the highest in the state.<\/p>\n 46% of UCSC undergraduates <\/a>say they were dissatisfied with the value of their education last year, the highest for any campus<\/a>. All UC universities have the same tuition costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n After comparing UCSC to other universities, I believe that the primary driver of these issues is the lack of affordable housing for students.<\/p>\n Between 2010 and 2024, the median cost of a single-family home in Santa Cruz County nearly tripled, from $495,000 to $1.42 million. Rents skyrocketed. As a result, UCSC has the highest prices for off-campus housing<\/a> for any university in California, according to the University of California Office of the President. A one-bedroom apartment near UCSC in February, averaged $3,416 per month, $663 more than in the next most expensive UC market (UC Irvine). Even with roommates, a UCSC student will pay $2,240 per month for a single room in a two-bedroom apartment, $541 more than they would pay for a similar off-campus apartment near UCLA<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a stressful amount of money to be paying for rent as a college student.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a cloud that hangs over everyone\u2019s heads,\u201d UCSC junior David Monjaras told me. \u201cIf you\u2019re not talking about it, you\u2019re thinking about it.\u201d He\u2019s seen friendships strained by UCSC\u2019s housing lottery, peers living in vans, and monthly rents that shock his friends and family living back home in Orange County.<\/p>\n Another disturbing number: UCSC has a large number of students<\/a> who regularly report being \u201chousing insecure\u201d or unhoused.<\/p>\n Stress \u2014 and how our bodies respond to it \u2014 is a common denominator for health problems. A recent academic analysis of 23 studies<\/a>, published in the BMC Public Health journal, <\/a>found that stress caused by high housing costs leads to poor mental and physical health \u2014 increasing rates of alcohol use, poor nutrition, depression and anxiety \u2014 especially for low-income residents.<\/p>\n The university has to stop this cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n UCSC hasn\u2019t built significant new on-campus housing in 20 years, partly because of environmental lawsuits, yes, but the pattern has to end. Its current project to build new units for graduate student families at the base of campus will house 120 people \u2014 7<\/a>6 fewer units than the housing unit it is replacing, and will also raise the cost of rent<\/a> by $527 per month.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s far too little.\u00a0<\/p>\n Enrollment, meanwhile, has grown more than 16% since 2008, leading the university to convert lounges into bedrooms, cram three students into two-person dorms, and lean on overpriced public-private housing partnerships, according to a report<\/a> from UCSC\u2019s Center for Labor and Community. To make matters worse, the completion of a new on-campus housing project with 2,900 beds on Heller Drive has just been delayed until 2029-30<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the University of California Board of Regents and UCSC continue to push for higher enrollment, often without the state providing extra funding<\/a>. The City and County of Santa Cruz are locked in a court battle with the regents over a plan to add 8,500<\/a> students by 2040, because our elected leaders doubt the UC Board of Regents and UCSC can build enough affordable housing to support the growth.<\/p>\n Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley recently criticized the UC regents\u2019 approach<\/a>: \u201cThey don\u2019t treat anything else as a business, except when it comes to housing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The business partnerships the University of California is making with private real estate companies are also deeply disturbing. In 2023, the University of California invested $4.5 billion<\/a> into Blackstone Real Estate, the world\u2019s largest private equity firm \u2014 known for raising rents by as much as 201%<\/a>. Although Blackstone doesn\u2019t own real estate in Santa Cruz, the UC appears to have learned a few of its tricks.<\/p>\n In 2021<\/a>, the University of California Office of Investments purchased Hilltop apartments on Western Drive (near campus), and then directed management to force out non-student residents and raise the rent. Since then, Hilltop has been plagued with complaints about staff, code violations, maintenance problems and rodent infestations<\/a>. Many of the units still charge market rates, with the cost of many one-bedroom apartments ranging from $3,545 to $4,045 per month<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to UC Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher<\/a>, the Hilltop and other rental properties near other UC campuses were bought \u201cpurely as investment assets, to make a return on investment for our pensioners and for those in the endowment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m saddened to see the UC treat tenants this way, because college students deserve care and respect \u2014 they are our future, after all.\u00a0<\/p>\n Similarly, another murky housing project underway is going up at the intersection of Swift Street and Delaware Avenue. It\u2019s a public-private partnership expected to house 400 UCSC students and 62 employees<\/a>, to be finished in the fall of 2026. It\u2019s owned by a local limited liability company, Redtree Partners, which has agreed to lease the units to UCSC for 30 years. The university said it was planning to offer rates at 20% below market rates<\/a> for students and give a 5% reduction for employees. Therefore, monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment would still cost at least $2,632 for a UCSC student and $3,125 for an employee.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s not affordable. UCSC administrators, we can do better than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, housing is only part of the problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n Students also need a clear pathway from college into good-paying jobs so they can pay off the debt they\u2019ve accrued \u2014 something harder to find in Santa Cruz than at more urban campuses like UC Berkeley, where internships, professional networks and higher-paying jobs are more accessible.<\/p>\n Since the pandemic, UCSC has ranked near the bottom for \u201coverall social experience<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Many students now live as far away as Capitola or Soquel because of high rents, commuting up to the mountaintop campus and often walking long distances once there. UCSC\u2019s location is unique \u2014 it\u2019s the only major California university tucked into the mountains. While the setting is beautiful and rejuvenating for many, other students told me it can feel \u201cisolating.\u201d<\/p>\n To afford living here, students often commute and work full-time jobs, leaving little time to build friendships or engage with the community. That might help explain why UCSC has had the lowest community service rates in the UC system<\/a> since 2016. Only 25% of students said they volunteered off campus last year.<\/p>\n Let me pause now and give credit where it\u2019s due: UCSC has invested in strong mental health support. Students I spoke with praised the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)<\/a> department, where therapists are doing remarkable work under tough circumstances. The program is well funded, and even includes a Mobile Crisis Team. UCSC is also adding 400 beds at Kresge College this year, with another 2,900 due to open on Heller Drive by 2029 or 2030<\/a>.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s nowhere near enough. Roughly 10,000<\/a> students still lack campus-owned, affordable housing<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The question now is: What else can we do, as we wait and push for the campus to build?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s first act on what former mayor and county supervisor Ryan Coonerty recommended in a recent Lookout Community Voices op-ed<\/a>. UCSC should accept more local students, who can live with family and help their out-of-town peers find social support in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next, the UCSC and the UC Board of Regents must drop plans for adding 8,500 more students in Santa Cruz by 2040, but keep investing in on-campus housing, which would vastly improve student well-being. I encourage readers to send an email<\/a> to the UC regents and share your opinions.\u00a0<\/p>\n I applaud the City and County of Santa Cruz for standing firm against increasing UCSC enrollment without adequate on-campus housing. Because of our proximity to Silicon Valley, we should require three new beds of on-campus housing for every additional student added to the census. Environmental groups, please stop preventing on-campus housing projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n We must do more for our students \u2013 and we have to do it now.\u00a0<\/p>\n Statewide numbers should be a wake-up call that UCSC and the wider community can do more to support the Banana Slugs \u2014 and protect them from extinction.<\/p>\n Kevin Norton is a public health professional who lives on the west side of Santa Cruz. He is a community organizer for Pacific for People<\/a>. He can be reached at healthysantacruz@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quick Take UC Santa Cruz students report the worst mental health in the UC system, citing stress, anxiety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,71999,5472,393,394,12721,57994],"class_list":{"0":"post-132053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-higher-ed","12":"tag-instagram","13":"tag-mental-health","14":"tag-mentalhealth","15":"tag-premium","16":"tag-uc-santa-cruz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"an](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/overcrowded-apartment.jpg\")
A photo of an overcrowded apartment from the \u201cNo Place Like Home: Affordable Housing in Crisis, Santa Cruz County, CA\u201d report. Credit: Via UCSC Center for Labor and Community<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/students-who-report-being-affected-academically-by-housing-insecurity.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/students-satisfied-with-value-of-education-for-price.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/all-campuses-regret-about-enrolling-1024x683.jpg\")
Data from the UC Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES)<\/a>; graphs created by Kevin Norton.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kevin-Norton-backyard-photo.jpg\")
Kevin Norton. Credit: Kevin Norton<\/p>\n