In an email sent earlier this evening, Pomona College Dean of Campus Life Josh Eisenberg informed students that, in addition to the normal on-campus housing, “Pomona will also lease housing at Oasis KGI Commons, an apartment complex located at 111 Bucknell Ave., Claremont, CA, right in the Claremont Village adjacent to the Packing House.” According to Eisenberg, the college expects to lease rooms at Oasis only for the fall 2021 semester. Pomona will also provide all students with an unlimited meal plan in the belief “that meals are one of the most effective ways to create community.”
The email explains that in deciding on a housing policy, the college “took into account student concerns about having enough spaces available, recognizing that [it] may have a slightly larger first-year class and a smaller study abroad cohort, as well as some members of the Class of 2021 who had been on leave returning to campus for their final semester(s).”
Under Pomona’s policy for next year, “[a]ll students who have registered for classes for the fall 2021 semester will participate in room draw. It is scheduled for June 8 – 11 and will be held online using the Symplicity software program that was to be implemented in spring 2020. All members of the classes of 2022, 2023 and 2024 are eligible for the room draw. Members of the Class of 2021 who are returning will also participate.”
In addition to its on-campus housing, “Pomona will also lease housing at Oasis KGI Commons, an apartment complex located at 111 Bucknell Ave., Claremont, CA, right in the Claremont Village adjacent to the Packing House. Oasis is overseen by the Keck Graduate Institute. The College expects to lease rooms from Oasis only for the fall 2021 semester with the hope that juniors will be allowed to study abroad in spring 2022. (If study abroad is canceled, we will extend our lease with Oasis for the spring semester.)”
Pomona is not the first member of the Claremont Consortium to provide off-campus housing for its students. Last month, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) announced that it would be extending its summer lease at Alexan Kendry apartments in Claremont into the fall semester.
According to Eisenberg, Pomona “will give the Class of 2021 priority placement in Oasis for the fall 2021 semester. The remaining Oasis spaces will be in the room draw. These spaces are especially recommended for juniors who hope to go abroad in spring 2022. Oasis spaces are considered college-sponsored housing.”
Seniors and juniors will also be able to apply to live off-campus for the 2021-2022 academic year. The email stated that “[t]he number of students allowed to live off campus will be 60, which is the average number of students who have lived off-campus for the previous three on-campus academic years. Members of the Classes of 2021 and 2022 will be given priority.
Pomona, like the rest of the Consortium’s member institutions, has also decided “to only provide meals for its own students in its dining facilities to lower density during peak times and provide students with more flexibility in terms of when to eat…Students can eat any time they want at Frank or Frary during their hours of operation. (Oldenborg will only be open for lunch, as is traditional.)”
To support rebuilding community after a year away from campus, Pomona has also decided that “all students living in Pomona College housing (including Oasis) will have the unlimited meal plan.” The college will also require that all off-campus students have a 10-meal plan.