Students faced significant housing changes during the 2024-2025 school year, which saw the return of four-person rooms known as quads to Roble Hall. Building A of Escondido Village’s graduate residences also offered fewer undergraduate options as it is transitioning to graduate-only housing.

Many students now living in quads said they struggle to live in such a small space.

According to the Stanford Report, Stanford’s residential and restaurant businesses have began to transition EVGR this year by reducing the amount of space available to undergraduates in the building, which will continue to decrease over subsequent years until it is fully returned to graduate housing. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, only graduate students lived at EVGR-A.

For Chhavi Nahata ’26, a current EVGR-A resident, the plan to phase out apartment living for undergraduates who hoped to have access to better living conditions is a disappointment.

“I hope more undergraduates can experience EVGR, because it is really good accommodation and the dormitories are not good. They must be newer like EVGR,” Nahata said.

Tooba Riaz ’26, who lived at EVGR-B over the summer, said “the problem is with the current housing system for undergraduates.”

Riaz said she doesn’t think the problem is that housing is kicking undergraduates out of graduate student housing, but rather she sees the problem as there not being an adequate replacement.

Jocelyn Breeland, R&DE’s communications manager, wrote to the Daily that even though they are phasing out undergraduates from EVGR-A, they will still ensure that undergraduates get housing.

“With the increase in undergraduate student numbers post-pandemic, the decision was made to bring the quads back to Roble to ensure there were enough beds in the undergraduate residence halls,” Breeland wrote.

Breeland wrote that there is no direct correlation between undergraduate assignments in the EVGR-A and Roble configurations. Housing assignments for undergraduate students involve several factors, such as the number of spaces available in undergraduate dormitories, the size of the undergraduate population, and the increased demand for housing after the COVID-19 pandemic, she wrote.

Adjusting to four-person rooms has been a challenge for students like Sienna Robinson ’27. She originally wanted to live in a one-room double in Meier or Norcliffe, but ended up with a quad in Roble. She said she felt “claustrophobia” related to her living situation.

“The beds literally touch each other, so my roommate’s feet and my head are a foot apart when I sleep at night,” Robinson said. She said it was uncomfortable to sleep so close to someone and could be difficult due to the lack of privacy.

Lula Jackson ’27 also had a similar experience when she moved in. She said she had a “mini-meltdown” when she first moved to Roble and initially thought she had made a mistake by trying to live on West Campus. She said the beds touched each other, but because she put them on top of each other, she was able to create space. The room is still very narrow and has limited storage space, Jackson said.

Students like Angelina Ambrosiou ’27 joined the housing portal during their entry hours only to discover that a Roble quad was the only option available. When she moved in, she found that her sink door couldn’t open all the way because a bed was partially blocking it.

Ambrosiou was shocked when she first walked in and saw how cramped the place was. She said she could definitely tell the size was for a three piece double bed.

However, not all quads were a claustrophobic last resort. At Toyon, larger quad rooms attract social students such as Ahmed Zafar ’27.

“At Toyon, the quads are actually bigger than the other rooms,” Zafar said. Privacy, however, poses a big challenge because time alone is rare, he said.

“I wanted to meet more people during my sophomore year, so I thought a quad would help me do that,” Zafar said.