Cal State Fullerton’s new Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall is a 512-bed, apartment-style student housing community that university officials say will help address a housing shortage on campus.
The $157.9 million hall, funded in part by an $88.9 million state student housing grant, will accommodate 30% of the students who have been on the university’s housing waitlist, officials said.
The Fullerton campus hosts nearly 42,000 students, but prior to the new residence hall, only 2,196 beds were available for on-campus housing, serving roughly 5% of the student population. More than 1,500 students were on a waitlist, according to university officials.
A ribbon-cutting Friday morning celebrated the new residence hall.
Sophomore Natalie Buffolino poses for a portrait on her bed in her new dorm in the Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall during tours for the hall’s grand opening ceremony at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
The Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, was inaugurated with a grand opening ceremony in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Attendees socialize behind a portrait from a 1986 groundbreaking ceremony before the beginning of the grand opening ceremony for the new Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. The portrait was from a ceremony held on September 19, 1986 to celebrate the first student housing complex to be built on-campus, and featured Jewel Plummer Cobb, second to the left from center. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Members of the Office of the Chancellor, the Capital Programs and Facilities Management, and the Office of the Vice President for Administration and Finance tour the newly constructed Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Chrissy Washington, president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, speaks during the inauguration ceremony of the Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Associated Students President Cesar Mendoza speaks during the grand opening ceremony for the new Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Dr. Khalilah Doss, vice president for Student Affairs and Strategic Enrollment Management, speaks during the grand opening ceremony for the new Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Dr. Khalilah Doss, vice president for Student Affairs and Strategic Enrollment Management, speaks during the grand opening ceremony for the new Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Natalie Buffolino, right, watches attendees of the grand opening ceremony tour the kitchen and bathroom of her dorm in the Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. Buffolino, a Kinesiology major and track and field athlete in the class of 2029, is excited about having more space and being able to cook in the dorm’s kitchens. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Tables and seating for students sits outside the entrance of the Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
A portrait of Jewel Plummer Cobb sits beside the podium and near the entrance of the newly-built Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, during its grand opening ceremony in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Attendees celebrate following speeches during the grand opening ceremony for the new Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Trees and new growths lines the sidewalks outside the Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Dr. Vincent E. Vigil announces the end of the remarks and the beginning of the ribbon cutting ceremony during the grand opening ceremony for the new Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Mascot Tuffy the Titan and speakers Chrissy Washington, Dr. Vincent E. Vigil, and Dr. Khalilah Doss celebrate after Doss cut the ribbon during the grand opening ceremony of the Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
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Sophomore Natalie Buffolino poses for a portrait on her bed in her new dorm in the Jewel Plummer Cobb Hall during tours for the hall’s grand opening ceremony at California State University, Fullerton, in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2026. (Photo by Erin Burk, Contributing Photographer)
Chrissy Washington, president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. chapter at Cal State Fullerton, said at Friday’s celebration that Cobb’s global impact on science, medicine and student achievement “has opened doors for countless Black women and underrepresented people, many of whom attend our university.”
The new hall replaces the original Jewel Plummer Cobb residence halls, built in 1963 and demolished in 2024 to make way for the new building. Inside the new hall, students had started moving in just days earlier. The residence hall features apartments with their own kitchens and living spaces as well as onsite laundry, a convenience store and a cafe.
“It’s really great. I like that they have non-communal bathrooms,” said Lily Sevilla, 20, an elementary education major in her junior year at CSUF.
Its opening also marks the first property in CSUF’s reduced-rate student housing program, launched this fall, which offers qualified students a 20% reduction in their housing rates, not including meal plans.
The reduced rate program selects 390 eligible students to participate through a lottery process, CSUF spokesperson Kendra Morales said. “Housing and residential life then assigns the units they live in based on the unit type the students select, and when their applications are received, as housing is on a first-come, first-serve basis.”
“We don’t use the term affordability,” said Khalilah Doss, vice president for student affairs and strategic enrollment management. “This is a reduced rate, because there are Californians and people across the globe who are struggling to figure out what affordability means. So for us, we look at it as doing our small part in this work.”
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Associated Students President Cesar Mendoza encouraged the building’s first residents to connect with one another,
“Community doesn’t happen automatically because people share a building,” he told the crowd. “It happens when people make the choice to participate in it.”
