The Hikes and The Housing

Living on campus can cost residents a pretty penny but are tuition hikes turning down living in the dorms? For students like Rochelle Ferguson, freshman from Parkside Commons, dorming has burned a whole in her wallet and placed an added stress factor to her family.

Ferguson depends on loans for tuition and being a resident comes from parental contribution. She is now an applicant for the Residents Assistant position, which offers perks such as great job experience, networking and  free residence.

"I don't get any financial aid and my mom is a single parent," Ferguson said while she waited for her next class to start. "My sister and i definitely see a difference, we just don't have as much as we use to."

She says that the free housing was the initial attraction to the RA position, but the other duties were also something she could see herself doing.

Tuition hikes at CSULB pose an impending threat to students who depend on financial aid. Funds seem to be decreasing as tuition hikes, leaving students with less and less financial stability. The CSU system's tuition, still less than a UC but also a strain with the constant raises.

"UCs were completely out of the question for me," Ferguson said. " the way it keeps hiking, , who knows if ill be able to afford a CSU, by the time I'm a senior."

The hikes are keeping students running to the housing office to turn in RA applications of going back home. Other students find roommates and an apartment off campus that surprisingly is still more affordable than living on campus.

In anticipation of the constant raises, students glued to their email inbox waiting for the next hike. For some dorming is just out of the question.

-Leslie Campos

RA work doesn't stop, even during the holidays.

          Residence Assistants, unfortunately, have to rotate around the holidays to stay and work, despite the lack of students staying over the holiday weekend.

         "I'm on call from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. [on Easter Sunday]," said Los Alamitos RA Laura Jenkins. "And then I work again from 7 p.m. until midnight on night rounds."

          Many of the RA's reported a huge drop in the number of students staying in the dorms over the weekend because of the holiday. But because of the incoming mail and the potential lockouts that need to be tended to, RA's and student assistants (or SA's) had to continue working through the holiday weekend.

          How does this effect the RAs? They can't make it home as often to celebrate holidays with their family members, holidays that are often very near and dear to their hearts and have deep religious meanings.

          "It's definitely hard being away from home so much," said Jenkins, "but I know that it's just another part of my job."

-Lauren Weiss