While many colleges across California are facing on-campus housing shortages and spiraling rents off campus, University of the Pacific is creating a four-year campus housing guarantee for all new undergraduates.

First-year students enrolling this fall on Pacific’s historic Stockton Campus will be guaranteed campus housing for all four years and new transfer students will be guaranteed housing for up to three years, depending on when they start at Pacific.

Pacific President Christopher Callahan called living on campus “critically important” to the overall college experience.

“Research shows that students who live on their campuses perform better academically, are more engaged in cocurricular activities and graduate at higher rates than those who commute,” the president said. “We require our new undergraduates to live on campus for their first two years, but we think it is a great benefit for juniors and seniors too, which is why we are delighted to be able to offer this guarantee.”

Vice President for Student Life Maria Blandizzi added that the opportunity to stay on campus all four years eliminates what is often a problem for students living off campus: needing to sublet a private apartment during the summer months when often students are away on internships or are studying abroad.

“We are really fortunate at Pacific to have both enough housing for all of our undergraduates as well as a wide variety of types of campus housing with apartments, traditional residence halls and Greek houses,” she said.

Pacific can accommodate more than 2,500 students on campus–-1,089 in apartments, 1,277 in residence halls and 138 in sorority and fraternity houses.

Pacific opened its newest housing complex, Calaveras Commons, in fall 2018, a 154,000-square-foot apartment building that accommodates 377 students in singles, doubles and four-person apartments. The building, on North Campus adjacent to the Calaveras River, also has recreational and activity spaces on the first floor and a pool and firepit outside for residents.

The university also completed renovations last summer of Grace Covell Hall, a residence hall which houses up to 316 students. A set of 10 smaller residence halls, known as “the Quads,” will undergo full renovations this summer in time for incoming students. Plans also are underway to restore historic Manor Hall for housing for the university’s student veterans.

Pacific joins UCLA among the very few California universities offering a four-year housing guarantee.