Year after year ASUCD, specifically the City and County Affairs unit, plans an event that literally hits home with students across UCD.
Today, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., over 50 apartment complexes are coming together at the Activities and Recreation Center’s Upper Pavilion for Housing Day.
Housing Day started as a “direct connection between the UC Davis students and apartment complexes to be established on one convenient day and place,” said coordinator Sabrina Dias in an e-mail interview.
For the last 35 years, members of ASUCD have started preparing for this event in early fall quarter by finding a date and location that would accommodate at least 40 complexes, said Kevin Pascual, assistant director of policy at City and County Affairs. Over 1000 students attended last year.
“We then begin by compiling a list of apartment complexes or businesses that deal with housing. We send them a letter explaining what housing day is,” Dias said. “From the first point of contact until the event, we keep in contact with the apartment complexes, confirming those who will be attending and other such details.”
Other details include free food and prizes given out by some of the apartment complexes for students, said Don Gibson, senior biotech major and director of City and County Affairs.
“There’s going to be a raffle as well through a survey and the prizes include notebooks and a flat screen T.V,” Gibson said.
Apartment complexes will have blueprints of layouts of their apartments out for viewing, making the hunt for apartments easier.
“Housing Day allows students to compare and contrast the different apartments without spending an entire day traveling across the city,” Gibson said.
Apartment complexes present include Sharps and Flats, Tanglewood and University Village, all owned by Sequoia Equities who is sponsoring this event.
“We don’t advocate for one apartment complex over another,” Pascual said. “We’re just trying to give the students opportunities; looking for apartments is a scary thing, especially for newcomers.”
The event location has been switched from Freeborn Hall, which is undergoing construction, to make it more easily accessible and generate more interest among first-year students, Gibson said.
“This is the first year we are on this side of campus, closer to freshmen,” Gibson said. “This is the largest amount of complexes on record.”
DINA MORCOS can be reached at features@theaggie.org.
