“Family Student Housing.”

Most know the residential area exclusively through the Santa Cruz Metro’s automated bus stop announcement. The 199-unit housing community extends from the edge of Porter Meadow down to the east entrance in 42 nondescript beige buildings.

House cooperatives, or co-ops, provide an alternative living space for students and non-students in Santa Cruz and across the country. Despite recent setbacks, cooperative members in Santa Cruz are working towards a brighter future.

This spring has seen a greater marketing effort for campus housing than in past years, and the content of the advertisements has changed as well, reaching out to older students through new options.

In wake of the recent racially insensitive incidents at UC San Diego and a racially offensive image drawn on the wall of a bathroom stall at the Earth and Marine Sciences building at UC Santa Cruz, campus leaders are trying to promote inclusion through new housing communities with special themes.