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Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods says SB 118 is poorly drafted and confusing, and wouldn’t solve the dire situation that UC has created for students in California.

SB 118, introduced today in the California State Legislature, is poorly drafted and confusing, attempts to admit a small number of additional students to the UC Berkeley campus in 2022, but does nothing to solve the dire situation that UC has created for students in California.

Despite overwhelming evidence that UC has failed to house and support students, and increased campus crowding to the point that many students can’t graduate in four years, the bill would allow UC to continue rapid enrollment growth with no mitigation for least for 18 months after a court finds that UC has failed to analyze or mitigate growth impacts.

“We are very disappointed to see that the legislature is reacting in such an ill-considered way to UC Berkeley’s cynical use of students as pawns,” said Phil Bokovoy, President of Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods. “Instead the legislature should be focusing on the dire situation of students who face often insurmountable problems with housing, crowded classrooms and the inability to graduate in 4 years. Low income students have suffered the most from UC Berkeley’s 50% enrollment growth since the early 2000s.”

The bill attempts to allow UC to continue to increase enrollment far beyond current levels, even if that enrollment has severe impacts on the local community. For example, in the last 18 months, UC Berkeley increased enrollment by over 2700 students. Those 2700 students have likely displaced additional low income households in Berkeley. Further increases for the Fall of 2022 will only accelerate the local housing crisis. 

“We are hopeful that the legislature will work with local university communities across the state to craft a more carefully targeted bill to address both the needs of our deserving California high school graduates and communities where UC has created a housing crisis. No community wants to be the next Santa Barbara, with hundreds of students living in cars and motel rooms.” 

“While politicians have been saying that CEQA views students as “pollutants” the real issue is that population growth, students or otherwise, causes environmental impacts that need to be analyzed and mitigated. Increased population density – for any development – results in environmental impacts that must be analyzed. This misguided bill gives the UC a unique free pass to avoid analyzing impacts associated with its own enrollment decisions directly impacting population density on campus and in the surrounding communities.”