UC Davis has more than fulfilled its student-housing construction commitments so far under a memorandum of understanding with the city of Davis and Yolo County, and is “on-track to hit its 2023 commitment of 15,000 beds on campus,” says Mike Sheehan, associate vice chancellor of housing, dining and divisional operations for Student Affairs.

“This is a direct result of UC Davis’ dedication to the MOU and the student body,” Sheehan said in a follow-up to a report he gave at a Nov. 30 town-gown meeting of the parties to the MOU, which they signed in 2018.

At the meeting, Sheehan and Lucas Griffith, director of campus planning, detailed the addition of roughly 6,000 bed spaces since 2017, including about 1,500 that will come online with the opening next fall of the new Orchard Park Apartments for families and graduate students.

“Back in 2018 we said we took a hundred years to accommodate 9,000-plus students on campus, and in our last five years we’ve accommodated over 6,000 additional ... a pretty phenomenal accomplishment,” Griffith told the so-called 2X2X2 committee (two representatives each from the city, county and university). Chancellor Gary S. May and Vice Chancellor Clare Shinnerl of Finance, Operations and Administration attended as the UC Davis delegates.

1-to-1 commitment

Under the MOU, UC Davis must provide campus housing for 100% of the actual student population in excess of baseline enrollment of 33,825, which is the average of fall, winter and spring quarter enrollments in 2016-17. By 2021-22, UC Davis had added 3,119 students — thus, the agreement required 3,119 new bed spaces.

Instead, UC Davis is doubling that number, and, by the way, exceeding by 1,000 the university’s total projected enrollment growth by 2030-31.

As more bed spaces are added, the percentage of students who live on campus is also growing, from 29% in 2016-17 to 38% today — about halfway toward the university’s goal of 48.4% in 2030-31.

Sheehan gave a rundown of the projects completed since the fall of 2017 and the forthcoming Orchard Park:

• Tercero Phase IV, residence halls — 500-bed increase, completed
• Sol Double-Up, apartments at UC Davis West Village — 550-bed increase, completed
• Shasta Hall and Yosemite Hall, Cuarto residence halls (the old Emerson and Webster halls, redeveloped) — 440-bed increase, completed
• The Green at West Village, apartments — 3,290-bed increase, completed
• Orchard Park, apartments — 1,549-bed increase, on track for opening fall 2023

(Griffith gave the number of added bed spaces as roughly 6,000, but you will see the numbers above add up to 6,329. Sheehan explained the difference: “The final number of configured spaces varies year to year based on enrollment and the number of triples we have in the residence halls.”)

“Achieving these results in an aggressive timeline and during the pandemic is a monumental success,” Sheehan said in his follow-up report.