And the Educational Cultural Complex in San Diego\u2019s Mountain View neighborhood, which has hosted such luminaries as Coretta Scott King, Stevie Wonder and Jesse Jackson, is being renovated and expanded at the College of Continuing Education.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s boom time in academia. San Diego County\u2019s colleges and universities are in the midst of a historic and frenetic effort to deal with rising enrollment and the need to provide students with a place to live in one of the nation\u2019s priciest housing and rental markets.<\/p>\n
Thirteen schools are collectively spending nearly $11 billion on construction, renovations and expansions, according to data from each of the institutions, which includes three public universities, nine public community colleges and one private university.<\/p>\n
The work began about three years ago and will last at least until 2034. The boom could also mushroom in size if voters in the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District on Nov. 3 extend<\/a> an existing bond by $624 million. Part of the money would enable Grossmont to replace drab portable bungalows with new classroom buildings.<\/p>\n The pressure for results is intense. The websites of UCSD and SDSU say the schools collectively received about 265,700 total admissions applications for fall 2026. Many were turned away. But the two schools\u2019 overall enrollment could exceed 90,000 this year.<\/p>\n These institutions are growing due to pent-up demand, and the fact that Southern California is not suffering the sort of deep demographic and chronic money problems that are upending many public and private universities in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n The enrollment of Pennsylvania\u2019s state-owned\u00a0public universities dropped by 36,000<\/a> from 2010 to 2023, a plunge attributed to declining numbers of college-age students, a lower percentage of people enrolling in college, limited government funding and rising tuition.<\/p>\n Such prominent universities as Syracuse and San Francisco State, as well as Hampshire College, are also struggling to attract students.<\/p>\n The number of college-age students in California is also dropping. But the percentage who choose to attend college has begun to rise as <\/a>the state invests heavily in higher education.<\/p>\n The elite University of California system is projected to continue experiencing robust growth, while the California State University system is expected to expand at a solid rate, according to a 2024 study<\/a> by the Public Policy Institute of California, using state estimates. Community colleges also will gain students but fail to reach previous highs, and private, nonprofit colleges will see modest growth, the report adds.<\/p>\n Roughly $4.3\u00a0billion of the $10.7 billion that local schools are spending is being used to create additional housing for nearly 12,000\u00a0students and others. Almost half of those people will live in Pepper Canyon East<\/a>, a village at UCSD that will be composed of at least 10 buildings near the edge of Interstate 5.<\/p>\n Last year, UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla floated the idea of building a 30-to-40-story tower, an idea he\u2019s no longer pushing publicly. But he told the Union-Tribune recently that the new village will raise UCSD\u2019s total housing capacity to 30,400, the highest of any school in the nation.<\/p>\n Bold thinking is also occurring at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, which told the Union-Tribune it is exploring whether to build a 23-story, 550-bed tower at a satellite campus in National City, with some beds possibly going to sailors from Naval Base San Diego.<\/p>\n The San Diego Community College District and the city of San Diego have been discussing ways to transform San Diego\u2019s Golden Hall into a museum and education center in a step toward revitalizing the downtown Civic Center area. Greg Smith, the district\u2019s chancellor, told the Union-Tribune he is exploring long-term opportunities for adding 4,000 to 5,000 units of housing.<\/p>\n Smith also said he would like to create housing for about 10,000 of the students who attend the district\u2019s four colleges. Work is underway on a seven-story tower at City College that will house almost 800 people.<\/p>\n These ideas reflect an emerging belief among community colleges \u2014 which have the ability to raise lots of bond money \u2014 that they should help ease the housing shortage for many people in their service areas, not just for students.<\/p>\n Market analysts say the housing push is impressive but involves significant financial risk, largely because students are increasingly interested in taking online courses.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would not be surprising if some student housing begins to have vacancies 10 years down the road,\u201d said Norm Miller, an emeritus professor of real estate finance at the University of San Diego.<\/p>\n Adela de la Torre, the president of SDSU, isn\u2019t sweating it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is more and more demand for students to be on campus precisely because of community engagement, the extra-curricular activities, the bonding that occurs,\u201d said de la Torre, an entrepreneurial economist who is building beds for 3,600 students<\/a> at Evolve, a village that\u2019s rising on the edges of a campus short on space.<\/p>\n Playing catch-up<\/p>\n The building frenzy arose from the Great Recession of 2008. It led many colleges and universities to cut courses<\/a>, limit enrollment and delay the comparatively small number of student housing projects on the books. The COVID-19 pandemic had a similar effect.<\/p>\n But it did not dampen students\u2019 desire for an education. The long-term enrollment of the UC and CSU soared, eventually creating a student housing shortage that began to surface around 2015. Neither system was ready for it. Thousands of students were left to fend for themselves in places such as La Jolla, where they had to compete for a limited and expensive stock of housing.<\/p>\n The UC sought help from Khosla, an engineer who loves to build. The La Jolla campus had lots of open space, and Khosla didn\u2019t mind building residential towers that could be seen from miles away. This didn\u2019t slay the housing shortage. But it made waitlists shorter on a campus that today has 45,000 students and is galloping toward the 56,000 mark.<\/p>\n De la Torre has also focused on housing, and not simply because she wants SDSU\u2019s enrollment to rise to at least 50,000 from its current high of roughly 43,000.<\/p>\n The university is located in College Area, a roughly 3-square-mile community where students have crammed into privately owned rental homes and \u201cgranny flats\u201d for decades. The neighborhood is dominated by fraternities and sororities that have often infuriated residents with raucous, and sometimes dangerous, parties. The school has been able to do little about it because the behavior occurs off campus.<\/p>\n Some of that tension may ease with the rollout of Evolve, a student housing village featuring dining halls, open spaces and better study areas. The first building, known as Texcoco<\/a>, opened this month.<\/p>\n![\"Workers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SUT-L-COLLEGE-GROWTH-001.jpg\")
Work continues on a new housing village, Evolve, at San Diego State University overlooking Interstate 8. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"High](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SUT-L-COLLEGE-BOOM016.jpg\")
California State University San Marcos is investing in more student housing. Close right is University Village built in 2003, with the new adjacent Black Oak Hall at upper\/middle left. At far right is Barham Drive. (Charlie Neuman \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nA focus on housing<\/p>\n![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sut-l-construction-boom-008.jpg\")
Students arrive on Aug. 21 ahead of San Diego State University\u2019s first day of classes for the fall 2026 semester.\u00a0(Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SUT-L-ICON-050_243757564.jpg\"){kind=icon}
In an aerial photo, new student housing high-rises at UC San Diego are seen on Oct. 7, 2025. (K.C. Alfred \/ U-T file)<\/p>\n![\"Construction](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SUT-L-COLLEGE-GROWTH-004.jpg\")
Construction continues on the Life Science Building at San Diego State University on July 31. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sut-l-sdsu-announcement-007.jpg\")
San Diego State University President Adela de la Torre and San Diego Community College District Chancellor Gregory Smith sign an educational partnership in the parking lot of Snapdragon Stadium on July 17, 2025, in Mission Valley. (Meg McLaughlin \/ U-T file)<\/p>\n![\"Recent](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SUT-L-CSUSM-SDSU-009.jpg\")
The new North City development, which includes student housing, classrooms, a student dining hall and restaurants, is being built just north of Cal State University San Marcos. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n