Students petition to end housing and meal plan requirements for underclassmen

A Chapman student organization is pushing to pass a petition to end the housing requirement for freshman and sophomore students, as well as make the meal plan optional for those with on-campus housing. Photos by SIMRAH AHMAD, staff photographer

For many years, Chapman University has attempted to require its first- and second-year students to live in campus housing. 

That hasn’t always worked out.

Chapman hasn’t had enough housing for all freshman and sophomore students to live on campus, seen most notably this year as the largest first-year class in the university’s history by far attempted — and struggled — to secure on-campus housing.

In response, the university gave some rising sophomores the option to petition out of student housing.

But moving forward, Chapman should have enough housing for at least 50% of the student body with the recent purchase of the Anavia Apartments in Anaheim, which will be renamed Chapman Court and open for occupancy in fall 2024.

The petition, titled “End the Housing Scheme at Chapman University,” advocates for second-year students to have the option to live off campus if they want.

But now, some students are petitioning for this to no longer be a requirement, suggesting also for a removal of meal plan requirements. 

The petition, titled “End the Housing Scheme at Chapman University” and run by Chapman’s Young Americans for Liberty chapter (YAL), has already garnered more than 210 signatures as of May 1.

“The reaction on campus has been good and surprisingly positive towards our petition,” said Neal Gillespie, a senior strategic and corporate communication major, California state chair of YAL and the organization's chapter president at Chapman. 

Housing in the 2023-2024 academic year will cost an upwards of $11,645 per academic year, according to Chapman’s website. The housing policy and meal plan requirement is a form of economic disenfranchisement and exempts students from financial freedom, Gillespie said. 

“We want students to have as much financial freedom as possible and have a greater say in where they live,” Gillespie said. 

Currently, the only way to opt out of student housing is if you have a child, spouse or a relative to live with near campus. Yet some might want to opt out of housing because of financial reasons or because they want to live with a certain group of people.    

“I think that it is important to have the dorm experience your first year, but I feel like for (your) second year, it should not be required, just an option,” junior health science major Aubrey Ho told The Panther. 

The Chapman website suggests that finding housing on campus will help you find a sense of belonging in college and that Chapman housing can help students make friends, find clubs to join and easily get to their classes. 

Chapman hopes to support even more students in fall 2024, according to Juan Tinoco, the assistant dean of students and the director of Residence Life and First Year Experience.

“I hope students can understand and appreciate the opportunity that Chapman is trying to provide for them, the opportunity to take their first two years to transition and fully immerse themselves in the college experience,” Tinoco said.

Chapman currently offers five residential halls for first-year students and five student community options that are available for second-year students. The residential halls that are available are Henley Hall, Pralle-Sodaro Hall, Glass Hall, Morlan Hall and the Sandhu Residence Center. The community options available are the Davis and Harris Apartments, The K Residence Hall, Chapman Grand, Panther Village and the Glass Hall Apartments. 

Amanda Galley, a Chapman alumna who graduated in 2022 with a degree in film production and previously worked as a Residence Hall Advisor, believes that housing should be required for first-year students but optional past that.

“It is a crucial part of development as an independent human, as well as building relationships with other students in a new environment,” Galley told The Panther. 

Chapman does offer a housing grant to help offset housing costs for those who live in residence halls and apartments. Nonetheless, Ho said that she is saving money living in a house rather than The K Residence Hall, despite her housing grant. 

“I pay so much less now. The housing grant does not make up the difference of how much cheaper it is to live off campus,” Ho said. “I lived in The K last year and paid more to share a room than I do now with my own room in a house with various amenities.” 

Chapman is currently trying to find housing for its largest incoming freshman class yet. Some students were left feeling disappointed, due to popular residential halls being filled up within days. 

“A lot of students, especially underclassmen, were a part of a recent issue where they were admitted (into Chapman), but could only attend if they had some kind of off-campus housing arrangement," Gillespie said.

Housing is guaranteed for a student's first two years at the university. However, this past fall, the university experienced challenges with housing options after an increase in student admits. 

As the university enrollment reaches an all-time high, many students find themselves struggling to find housing for the fall 2023 semester.

“The dorms being potentially optional would be good but also keep in mind that the dorms are also a good way to meet people,” Chloe Garrett, a freshman integrated educational studies major, told The Panther.

Garrett’s experience in the dorms has been good, but she has struggled with the size of the room. 

“You have to cram three people in most dorms, and you barely get any space for your stuff and any alone time, which sucks if you do not get along with your roommates,” Garrett said. 

Garrett says that she has had a smooth experience in looking for housing next year. Yet, she does not believe this would have been possible if she was not living with someone who had a first pick in the housing assignment process. 

“If I wasn’t rooming with her, I would be screwed and would probably have not gotten housing since they over-admitted my class, as some of my friends had to find off-campus housing,” Garrett said.  

Chapman requires a meal plan for incoming first-year students or anyone living in a residence hall. Students with access to a kitchen are not required to have a meal plan.

The purpose of the meal plan is to support a healthy lifestyle, prevent food insecurity and make it easy for students to access meals, according to Tinoco.

“As an institution, it is our goal to remove barriers that may impede the academic and personal success of our students and provide access to resources that will help them thrive,” Tinoco said.

The lowest package for meal plans will cost students $180 per week. This is a cost that is more than what students would have to pay if they ate at non-affiliated restaurants on a daily basis and even less if they lived off of groceries, according to the petition from YAL. 

Students who have to switch halls for various reasons have gotten switched from a hall that did not require a meal plan to one that does, Gillespie said.

“They definitely got the short end of the stick when it comes to financial freedom,” Gillespie said.

Gillespie said that the purpose of this petition is to show the university that they are here to make lives better for students.

“I want Chapman to understand that we are trying to bring back the sentiment that the university is a product and a service to students,” Gillespie told The Panther. “They are not an authoritarian organization that can control our wallets and control where we live.” 

Gillespie says that they have tried to call Residence Life to see if the policy would be in effect for the next year, and if housing is still guaranteed for next year. Even though he did not get a direct answer, they are under the belief that the housing mandate will still be in effect next year.

Editor’s note: Part of the reason that first- and second-year students are required to live on campus is because of potential conflicts with the community as more and more students attend the university. Read more about that issue here.