When a person looks at the Cal State San Bernardino website, you are greeted with various information fitting for someone who wants to or is going to attend the university. So when that person goes to the housing section, they see three unique villages. Arrowhead Village, Coyote Village, and University Village. All of these villages provide an experience for anyone who lives in them. However, unbeknownst of current and future attendees of Cal State San Bernardino, there was a 4th village on campus. A village that had renovations, millions of dollars invested into it, and housed many people yet, you can’t find it on the university website, it’s not mentioned by the school, and has been completely abandoned.
With a university that has thousands of applicants for campus housing, how can the university let an entire section go to waste? Why has Cal State San Bernardino let this happen without any proper statement given to the current and future students. Leaving all to ask, “What happened to Serrano Village?”
Serrano Village has history with Cal State San Bernardino and quite the significant one. Out of all of the villages on campus, Serrano Village was the first. Built in 1972, Serrano Village was the mainstay for those who chose to live on campus. So how come after 48 years a historical building goes completely abandoned? It’s rare that an established university can have such a blunder and not have it publicized at all, especially since millions of dollars was invested into the buildings. The last significant update by Cal State San Bernardino about Serrano Village was in Fall of 2019 for move-in day. “Returning students will also be moving into the university’s Serrano and Arrowhead villages on campus.”
Fall of 2019 leads right into 2020, which is around the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic. This time period saw campuses across the world shut down and had many wondering when things would be back to normal. When the world got back to normal around the summer of 2021, the four villages that were there in March of 2020 became only three; Arrowhead, University, and Coyote village.
The oldest village, the one with the most history to its name, stayed in place while the world around it kept going forward. Per the San Bernardino Sun, the reasoning was a financial one. “Serrano Village, which offered 383 beds, closed in 2020 due to maintenance costs. It was the only debt-free housing development at CSUSB, according to last August’s audit.”
This further leads into the debts that Cal State San Bernardino has. The university loses around $8 million per year on housing per the University’s audit report on August 6th of 2025. Along with the fact that at the end of June, $18.5 million of debt was transferred over from the housing program to throughout the university per the San Bernardino Sun.
So what’s next in this saga for both the university, the on campus housing, and the students that could be impacted by this?
For starters the university seemingly has moved on this. The Campus’ current villages; Arrowhead, Coyote, and University are still going strong with around 8%( or 1,500 students) of enrolled students living in these villages.
Along with that, the University got approved in October 2020 for a $111 million state funded construction of a Performance Arts Center. Cal State San Bernardino vice president for administration and finance Doug Freer stated at the time, “The new Performing Arts Center will both redefine the entry experience to the university and at the same time provide state-of-the-art academic experiences to our students… “We expect that this will be the premier performing arts facility for our community and the Inland Empire.”
As of April of 2026, there hasn’t been any future plans for another village being built. For the students, it’s become the new normal.
Any student that would’ve been previously affected by the loss of Serrano Village would be long gone by now. The newer students are entering a University with three separate villages without learning of the history of the first and most important one not standing.