Several student employment positions within Cal State Fullerton Housing and Residential Engagement have been cut throughout the 2025-2026 academic year, and will not be reinstated.
According to sources, positions cut include office assistants, peer mentors, some resident advisor positions and facilities student assistants.
Office assistant positions are paid hourly. Students with these jobs are responsible for working at the front desks, leading housing tours and handling the mailroom, among other tasks. Peer mentors received a $2,500 housing credit and were responsible for hosting study sessions and workshops four hours per week.
Housing student employees told the Daily Titan that they did not receive any formal notice, and were only informed about the end of their employment through a staff meeting.
The information was also revealed months after the housing application opened. RAs receive free housing and peer mentors receive a stipend for housing. Those who did not get rehired will not receive housing support.
“We basically didn’t know that we were getting cut until last week,” said Office Assistant Jordan Benitas on April 15. “Many of my coworkers weren’t able to find jobs or any sort of substitute or any sort of supplemental income before then because all the student jobs had been taken up by that point.”
Out of all of the cuts, only eight resident assistant advisors were rehired for the following year.
In the resident halls and suites, there is one resident advisor per floor. In the apartments, every two floors has one resident advisor.
There are five residential halls — Elm, Fig, Holly, Juniper and Pine — for first-time freshmen at CSUF, each with five floors. Each floor can house up to 54 residents. There are three suite halls, each with six floors and 40 students per floor. There are also five apartment buildings, four floors each with around 20 students per floor.
The new six-story building, Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall, will have only two RAs and will have space for over 600 sophomore and junior students.
A number of the RAs who tried to unionize in March 2025 to ask for better compensation for working holidays were among those not rehired.
According to a previous Daily Titan interview with RA Monique Mota, the RAs do not get sick days, holiday leave or pay when the campus is closed.
“My middle-class scholarship was taken away because the RA role is listed on our accounts as a $20,000 scholarship when essentially it’s not a scholarship, it’s a job,” Mota said in an interview with the Daily Titan in March 2025.
According to the sources, some of the student positions are being replaced by full-time hires, but at a smaller scale.
During this academic year, peer-mentor workload was already decreased and they were told to stop holding tutoring and study sessions for the rest of the year.
Students who were affected said that they were not given a proper reason as to why their positions were cut.
Hui-Ling Chan was established as the executive director of housing in April 2025.
Chan did not respond to Daily Titan questions and only provided a statement through CSUF strategic communications.
“These decisions followed a careful review of our operations and direct feedback from residents. To better serve students while remaining fiscally responsible, we’re implementing changes that improve both efficiency and service,” reads the statement attributed to Chan. “Our focus is on providing a more responsive, reliable experience for residents.”
Chan cited some specific changes in student hiring, such as having secure lockers for package delivery instead of student assistants in mailrooms.
In the past, Chan has worked for the residential departments at Ohio State University, Western Washington University, UC Merced and the University of Washington.