by Christina Mehr and Jasmin Shirazian
If you were considering living on campus next year, submitting your housing application just got expensive. The university is now charging a $100 nonrefundable application fee to apply to live in student housing. While this application fee is nonrefundable, it does not ensure housing for students who apply.
According to Cal Poly Humboldt housing, the $100 housing application fee is not an additional cost to students. It is treated as an initial deposit and is credited towards the housing and meal plan charges.
“We had to reinstate the application fee because we had too many students completing housing applications and holding spaces who weren’t serious about living on campus, preventing other students who did want to live on campus,” said Bria Kupras, a representative for Humboldt Housing & Residence Life. “Currently, the application fee is nonrefundable.”
Once admitted into student housing, that $100 deposit will go to housing and meal plans.
For those students who are Pell Grant eligible, with verification from financial aid, they could receive a waiver. If a student is struggling to come up with the payment, another option would be the short-term loan program through Student Financial Services.
Skylar Rawitch is a first-year psychology major living in the Cypress dorms.
“The fee has definitely gotten me thinking about the worth of it,” Rawitch said. “I don’t think that it is fair, especially because the payment fee does not guarantee you housing. If it was optional to pay and guaranteed you housing… I may feel differently.”
“Submit your online application and pay the $100 nonrefundable application fee. The $100 will be applied to the housing and meal plan charges, unless the application is canceled where the application fee will be forfeited,” the university’s official housing website states.
The application fee seems to be an incentive for applicants to only apply if they are seriously considering living on campus.
“How is it in the best interest of a school that’s supposed to take care of their students and keep them safe to charge them even more when people already are struggling to afford it?” Rawitch said. “They aren’t getting the money back if they do not get housing, and for some people that $100 could be gas money, grocery money, etc., and they would be losing out on that because they were applying for something that [isn’t] guaranteed.”
Emma Sundberg is a molecular and cellular biology major in their first year at Humboldt. They currently live in Campus Apartments.
“I think it’s awful having us pay more to apply when we already have to pay so much,” Sundberg said. “There is no need to spend money on an application.”
Jess Carey, a biology major in their junior year, has also faced obstacles due to the fee. The application fee has deterred them from applying despite needing it due to housing insecurity over the summer.
“I understand that the whole point is to allow the school to get a more accurate idea of how many students to plan for,” Carey said. “But on the other hand, creating yet another barrier to accessible housing stretches the already weak trust of the students in our administration to meet our needs and encourage a livable, desirable college experience. My trust in the administration has been damaged even more from this situation.”
Kimberly Alexsandra, a sophomore journalism major, has experienced the dorms of varying communities on campus.
“I could see why the application fee is necessary, due to the chaos created by the projected overflow of students that applied for housing last spring that didn’t end up attending, which left the school with a worse rep and vacant dorms,” Aleksandra said. “$100 right out of pocket is too much for me and I’m sure others could relate, and for it to be nonrefundable is crazy. As a student who’s lived on campus for two years in different locations, I really don’t think anything about on campus housing is realistically credible enough for a nonrefundable application fee to be needed just to apply.”
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