UCSD is a public institution, therefore, the Chancellor, CFO and HDH should fall under the scrutiny of the individuals it serves to determine whether or not they are doing their job effectively. I call on the UCOP Board of regents to remove these individuals from their positions and replace them with individuals dedicated towards serving the employees and students and listening to their needs.   In the past year, HDH with support from the Chancellor and CFO has increased housing rates by up to 72% for incoming graduate students. The newly proposed rates will take up to 100% of some students’ salaries. For example, a Mesa Nueva 1-bd will be $2110/month, and UCSD graduate student researchers (GSRs) from a number of departments get paid $2125/month or less as GSRs (students get paid 50% of the amount in the “Monthly” column). In this way, ironically and deliberately, UCSD will in effect be collecting back all the money it pretends to give students as salaries. Furthermore, they have continuously increased the housing rates for undergraduate students, while also, decreased the parking availability on campus to below the allowed city ordinances. Specific facts regarding the increase in graduate housing are listed below. 

FACTS:

1. UCSD grad housing rent increases have grown 4x faster than UCSD grad salaries in the past 4 academic years: ’16-’17 — ’19-‘20). This is before the newly proposed increases in grad rental rates. https://ucstudenthousing.wordpress.com/ 
2. Prospective UCSD students are already turning UCSD down due to the high cost of housing, including campus housing.
3. HDH already made the same proposal – differential rates – to GFHAC in 2019. The Committee responded with a resounding, ‘No’.
4. UCSD has said that it is a very bad idea to have different prices for the same units (see 2019 GFHAC minutes). With their proposal shared with the campus community at the housing town hall on March, 12, 2021, HDH has shown it is willing to violate this UCSD guideline.
5. The new proposal effectively increases rates in a single year, by up to 72%.
6. HDH engaged the GFHAC reps in misleading budgeting practices in 2019, and prior, to make the reps feel bad about the HDH deficit, and have the reps in effect put their red stamp on unprecedented rent increases. See HDH slides/budgets/docs here.  
7. HDH admitted it purposefully gave the ARCHAC/GFHAC committee misleading info – see these March 12, 2019 GFHAC minutes.
8. UCSD rent is not “subsidized”. HDH claims the opposite: “we are self-supporting”. UCSD simply used to operate at-cost due to no cost of land. The previous administration (pre- 2018) was not as eager to raise rates when they already covered HDH’s expenses. They were ousted.
9. UCSD wants to raise student rent because it can: The goal is for campus rent to even out with the affluent UTC and La Jolla markets, which is where students tend to live if they are not on campus.
10. UCSD is not 20% below market. https://ucstudenthousing.wordpress.com/
11. In 2019 HDH hired a non- 3rd party company it works with – XPERA – to do a market study to show that HDH is 20% below market. The report cost $30,000. Needless to say XPERA showed HDH was more than 20% below market.
12. UCSD plans to be the leading university in 10 years in the US as far as the size of its student housing operation.
13. HDH is not a closed system – student rent money freely flows out of it and into UCOP at a rate of close to $1 million per year from grad housing alone.

Overall, I call on the removable of these individuals from their respective positions with new individuals being hired in conjunction with approval from the academic senate at UCSD.