UC Riverside, Riverside Community College District Sign MOU for New Student Housing Complex
11/05/2024
Wolde-Ab Isaac, Ph.D., chancellor of Riverside Community College District, and Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox, chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the joint effort on the North District Phase II project, which will add 1,568 new beds in two apartment-style buildings at the northeast corner of Canyon Crest Drive and W. Linden Street.
The MOU signing took place at Centennial Plaza in downtown Riverside at RCCD’s monthly Board of Trustees’ meeting.
Last September, the University of California Board of Regents approved the $347.8 million project budget. Additional funding was secured when the two educational units partnered to secure $126 million in state money, which will be paid through the issuance of general revenue bonds. The state funding paid for 652 beds of which 326 shall be for the exclusive use of UCR students with the other 326 beds available to community college students at below-market low-income rents. The remaining 916 beds in the project would be rented to UCR students at affordable rents.
“UC Riverside is excited to partner with RCCD in support of community college students and their educational success,” Wilcox said. “We understand that part of student success is having access to services and basic needs, like housing, and we want to do all we can to help students obtain their degrees. Additionally, we hope the experience of living on campus allows the community college students to envision themselves as UCR students making their transfer that much less stressful.”
Housed community college students will enjoy UCR campus benefits such as access to the library and other amenities along with administrative student support services under the same conditions and requirements as UCR students, per the MOU agreement. Housed community college residents will have the right to the use of the university common areas, such as lounges, café, study rooms, laundry, fitness, mail, bike storage, and community gathering spaces. Residents will also enjoy high-speed wireless internet. The community college allocable units will be furnished in line with university housing opportunities.
“The goal of this project is to treat community college students living in the project on an equivalent basis to a UCR student,” Isaac said. “This intersegmental project offers a significant programmatic component that integrates community college students into the UCR campus system, resulting into what I believe will be stronger pathways for community college students to transfer to UCR to obtain higher education degrees and serve as viable members of the community. We are appreciative of Chancellor Wilcox and his UCR team for their partnership on this project.”
Under the agreement, parking will be made available for tenants, using the same terms and conditions as those available to other tenants in the North District Phase II. The fee for parking will be in addition to and separate from the bed rental rate, which has yet to be decided.
The completion date for the North District Phase II, seven-story housing units, is estimated to be July 15, 2025.
Published by External Relations & Strategic Communications