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For 2021-2022, Graduate and Family Housing made several large changes to the lease and resident handbook that are highly undesirable to residents:

Residents are required to give a 30 day notice before moving out and if residents are moving out prior to the end of the lease, they will be responsible for a financial penalty equivalent to one months’ rent. Previously, residents could give 45 days notice and move out without any penalty.

The deadline to vacate after graduation has also changed. As of Sept 1st, residents have 14 business days after losing eligibility to vacate your apartment, this includes graduation, loss of employment, end of contract, etc. Residents will still be required to give 30 days notice and complete the Intent to Vacate paperwork. Previously, residents had until July 15th to move out after a May graduation.

Additionally, residents will have to pay $30/month per vehicle to park in the parking lots inside the Graduate and Family Housing premises. Previously, parking was free for the first vehicle, and $10/mo per additional vehicle.

Graduate and Family Housing at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder is a critical resource for almost a thousand university employees, students, and their families. The residents of Graduate and Family Housing attend classes as well as work as teaching assistants, research assistants, post-docs, faculty, and staff, and depend on the benefits, predictability, and flexibility that Graduate and Family Housing provides so that they can keep CU Boulder running. Attempting to make Graduate and Family Housing resemble the Boulder housing market would be catastrophic for one of the most diverse segments of CU Boulder’s student community and workforce, and by extension, the quality of research and teaching at CU Boulder.


The residents of Graduate and Family Housing are one of the most diverse communities in a demographically white and wealthy city. However, by imposing parking costs, move-out penalties (equivalent to one month’s rent), and unreasonable move-out deadlines (within 14 days of losing eligibility), the Graduate and Family Housing Office creates impacts beyond the university — these policies attack the livability of the city of Boulder for one of its largest neighborhoods of immigrants and people of color. For residents, the alternative to living in Graduate and Family Housing is not to find market rate housing in Boulder, but instead to commute from much farther away, or even change employment.

By suddenly charging residents for parking and early move-outs, the Graduate and Family Housing Office has decided to make money off of the people who need their services the most — university families in need of flexible and affordable housing in Boulder.

Penalties for early move-outs are a tax on diverse life experiences. The only reason graduate students and postdocs would choose to move when they are busiest during the academic year is because of urgent exigencies, such as health issues, school emergencies, or other unpredictable life situations that do not fall under the officially listed exemptions. For some people these risks are higher than others, distributing the actuarial costs onto residents with less stable lives, such as those with poor health.

A vehicle is a necessary tool for many people who live in Graduate and Family Housing, especially those with children or disabilities. Yet Graduate and Family Housing transferred management of the resident parking lots to the CU Boulder Parking Services department, which plans to charge residents for $30/month per car. This amounts to an extra 2-3% increase in overall monthly costs. Residents also received a routine 3% increase in rent compared to last year. During a pandemic year when many faculty took pay cuts and graduate cost of living adjustments were frozen, the Graduate and Family Housing Office has thus effectively hiked rents on most families by 5-6% (7-9% for those with two vehicles). Even though this was partially imposed by Parking Services, certainly Graduate and Family Housing could have negotiated better terms for residents during the transfer of responsibility for the parking lots, or rejected the deal outright if it became clear that Parking Services would insist on charging residents.

Finally, it is an unreasonably short length of time to require residents to move out within 14 days after graduation, loss of employment, or other eligibility loss. It is nearly impossible to find housing in 14 days, especially with a family, possibly in a foreign country, while also looking for a new job. This policy could result in temporary or even permanent homelessness for families that do not find alternate housing within the deadline. The Graduate and Family Housing Office has indicated that they would be willing to offer ad hoc extensions on a case-by-case basis. However, there is currently no policy for deciding or tracking these extensions, so racial or linguistic discrimination may easily occur. We demand a much simpler alternative: residents should be given 45 days across the board to move out after losing eligibility (which was the previous policy for May move-outs).

We, the undersigned, request that the Graduate and Family Housing Office retracts the new changes that have been added to the 2021-2022 lease, which includes the financial early move-out penalty, the 14 day deadline to vacate, and the new parking costs ($30 per vehicle). In addition, we want an updated lease and resident handbook that allow residents to move out without penalty given a 45 day notice, a 45 day deadline to vacate after losing eligibility, and the reinstating of the former parking fee schedules.

NOTE: While we especially encourage residents of Graduate and Family Housing to sign this petition, anyone affiliated with CU Boulder as an undergrad or graduate student, faculty member, staff, alumni, or community member may sign to show their support.