Davis High graduates start their first year of college from home

PHOTO: Robbie Silver prepares to take notes for his online class (Courtesy: G. Lee).

By Anisha Dhakal,

BlueDevilHUB.com Editor–

Due to the uncertainty left by the current state of the pandemic, campuses throughout the country have implemented changes to their housing and class situations specific to their institution. Davis High graduates like Robbie Silver, a UC Santa Barbara freshman, have decided to start college from home.

Silver was initially open to the idea of living on campus. However, due to limited communications from UC Santa Barbara, students that were planning on attending the university left frustrated and confused. 

In late August, a restricted number of students received dorm contracts for their housing assignments. A few days later, UC Santa Barbara decided to cancel all housing contracts leaving a month-long window for students to determine their housing situations. 

Silver was initially planning to live in Isla Vista. When the pandemic hit, Silver decided to stay home due to the uncertainty of his college living situation.

“It’ll be good to be able to do the first quarter of college in a safe environment and avoid having to go through the stress of having to provide for myself and being an adult,” Silver said. 

On the other hand, Jacob Perez, an incoming freshman at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obisbo, decided to stay home after receiving news regarding the school’s dorm protocols this year.

“They’re only allowing one student per dorm and I wasn’t going to get a room with who I wanted so it was pointless for me to go down to live by myself,” Perez said. 

Perez also considered moving to San Luis Obisbo but ultimately decided that he personally did not see the value of living on campus for an unforeseeable period of time. 

“Chico recently got shut down, so it’s hard to predict what could possibly happen in the future for us as well,” Perez said. 

Currently, Silver and Perez both remain uncertain about their plans on moving to their respective campuses after their first quarter.