The University of California (UC) has been facing a housing crisis across many of its campuses, with some students resorting to staying in hotels due to the lack of permanent housing, according to CalMatters.
As the top-ranked public university in the nation, the University of California (UC) is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious systems of higher education in the world. But while California’s population has continued to grow, the system itself has remained largely stagnant, leading to overcrowded campuses and shrinking opportunities for California students.
Established in 1868, the UC system now operates with nine undergraduate campuses, with the most recent addition, UC Merced, opening in 2005. Since then, California’s population has continued to grow, including an increase of roughly 309,000 people between 2022 and 2025. However, the UC has made little major structural changes to accommodate this growth. Instead, it has largely relied on increasing enrollment, a solution that has proven insufficient.
One of the most visible consequences of this is the housing crisis across UC campuses. In 2020, one in 20 UC students was reported to have experienced homelessness.
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) has faced lawsuits from the city and county demanding further commitments to on-campus student housing. Meanwhile, at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), the housing shortage reached a peak in 2022, prompting some students to even consider living in their cars.
Countless other campuses, including the University of California, Davis (UCD), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of California, Berkeley, have all struggled with this imbalance between student enrollment and available housing.
Although plans and proposals for expansion have been discussed across multiple UC campuses, few large-scale solutions have been implemented. Some campuses have attempted to address the problem by adding more undergraduate beds.
However, these often failed to meet demands. For instance, UC Berkeley reports adding over 2,400 dorm beds to its campus since 2018.
Yet these efforts still fell short. In 2021, despite having 400 new dorm beds, UC Berkeley still turned away 5,500 housing applicants. Clearly, these incremental solutions are not meeting the scale of the problem.
This strain isn’t limited to housing. Some UC students have also struggled to enroll in required courses due to limited availability. In response, some campuses have turned to remote instruction as a partial solution, offering options for online courses.
However, this raises an obvious question: why are students paying tuition and housing costs for an in-person university experience if they ultimately have to take classes online — something they can simply do from home?
On top of that, admissions to UC campuses have become increasingly competitive for California residents. In the 2023-2024 admissions cycle, UCSD admitted 25.9% of in-state applicants, similar to, and even less than, its 28.1% acceptance rate for out-of-state applicants.
Meanwhile, the University of Virginia (UVA), ranked only two spots above UCSD in the U.S. News’ top public schools rankings for 2026, admitted 25.5% of in-state applicants while limiting out-of-state admissions to just 13%, clearly prioritizing residents.
This pattern recurs when UC campuses are compared with many other public universities across the nation, marking an extreme disparity. Despite being a public university system, funded largely by Californians, the UC does not consistently prioritize its own residents in admissions.
This reality seems particularly unfair given California’s high taxes and strong investment in education. California is one of the highest-taxing states in the nation and allocates more than 50 cents of every state dollar toward education. Residents are pouring their tax dollars into the state only to receive limited admission, overcrowded housing, and course limitations from the very universities that they help fund.
For years, the UC has represented opportunity and unparalleled education for California. Now, it is simply failing to expand at the pace its population demands.
If the UC hopes to remain true to its mission as a public institution serving Californians, it must adapt, whether by building an additional campus or by expanding infrastructure and housing at existing campuses. Without change, the UC will ultimately fail to provide Californians with the opportunities the system was originally created to provide.
This editorial reflects the views of the Editorial Board and was written by Emi Sim. The Editorial Board voted 6 in agreement, 6 somewhat in agreement, 1 in disagreement, and 5 refrained from voting.