Off-Campus Life

What Off-Campus Life does

Off-Campus Life is a student fee-funded department within Colorado State University's Division of Student Affairs, headquartered in Room 281 of the Lory Student Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. The office provides free off-campus housing search support, commuter resources, safe-ride transportation, and community integration programming for CSU students, with secondary support for faculty, staff, international students, and first-year commuters. It operates as a small unit (approximately 7 employees) and functions as the university's official, neutral liaison between students and the broader Fort Collins community, including Fort Collins Police, Neighborhood Services, and local property managers.

The department's core products are web-based tools and recurring programs: a RentalSearch online housing database, the RamRide free safe-ride program (founded fall 2003 by ASCSU and transferred to OCL in 2013, with 100,000+ lifetime patrons by 2009), Food Ops free food delivery for food-insecure students, Party Registration, Roommate Meet & Match, locker rentals, an annually updated Student Handbook, and seasonal programs including Fall Clean Up, the Housing Fair (40th annual edition in February 2025), the Community Welcome door-to-door neighborhood outreach (~2,000 homes reached annually), and the Shovel Snowdown snow-shovel distribution. The technology stack is described as conventional web-based delivery — content portals on the ocl.colostate.edu domain (with subdomains for rentalsearch.colostate.edu, ramride.colostate.edu, and partysmart.colostate.edu) — with no AI, proprietary algorithms, or data flywheel evidenced in the input.

OCL's business model is non-commercial: services are free to currently enrolled CSU students, with funding flowing from mandatory student fees through CSU's Division of Student Affairs rather than from sales, contracts, or external investment. There is no disclosed revenue, pricing model, or ARR. The go-to-market is institutional — OCL reaches users through CSU's official email channels, the student handbook, a website, an Instagram presence (@offcampusrams), and on-campus events at the Lory Student Center. Distribution is regional (Fort Collins, Colorado), and OCL's strategic posture centers on being the trusted, unbiased intermediary between the student body, the rental market (apartment complexes and property managers participating in the Housing Fair), and municipal authorities on issues such as noise, nuisance, parking, snow, and smoking ordinances.

Name

Off-Campus Life

Legal name

Off-Campus Life, Colorado State University

Website

https://ocl.colostate.edu

Company type

Public

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Off-Campus Life is a student fee-funded department within Colorado State University's Division of Student Affairs that provides free off-campus housing search, safe-ride transportation (RamRide), food delivery (Food Ops), and community integration programming to CSU students, faculty, and Fort Collins neighbors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Student Housing Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Services (611), Educational Services (61)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Off-Campus / University-Affiliated Housing Management (EDAEAFAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Off-Campus Housing Support & Landlord Relations (EDALACAJ), Commuter Student Life & Non-Residential Engagement (EDALAHAK)

Keywords

• Student housing services
• Off-campus housing resources
• University commuter services
• Campus community programs
• Student transportation programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Fort Collins

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Off-Campus Life is a Colorado State University student affairs department that provides free off-campus housing search resources (including the RentalSearch database, apartment and property management directories, and roommate matching), commuter support (RamRide safe rides, locker rentals, biking/driving/carpool guidance), and Fort Collins community integration programs (Community Welcome door-to-door outreach, Fall Clean Up, Shovel Snowdown, and Party Registration). All services are offered at no cost to currently enrolled CSU students and are funded through student fees.

Product overview

Off-Campus Life is a student services office at Colorado State University providing resources and programs to help students find off-campus housing, navigate commuting options, and integrate into the Fort Collins community. The office offers a centralized platform of services including housing search tools, transportation programs, community engagement initiatives, and student support resources. Key offerings include the RentalSearch database for finding housing, RamRide safe ride program, Food Ops food delivery service, and various community welcome and volunteer programs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• RamRide: Free safe ride program for CSU students
• Food Ops
• Shovel Snowdown
• Community Welcome

Products and services

• RentalSearch An online housing database that enables CSU students to search for off-campus rental properties, apartments, and houses in Fort Collins.
• RamRide A free safe ride program providing late-night transportation for CSU students; celebrated its 21st anniversary in 2024 and had served over 100,000 patrons by 2009.
• Food Ops A free food delivery system running throughout the school year that provides food pantry access to students who cannot transport themselves or food on their own.
• Locker Rental A rental service providing secure locker storage options for CSU students on campus.
• Party Registration A program allowing CSU students to register off-campus parties through the Good Neighbor Program to maintain positive relationships with Fort Collins residents.
• Roommate Meet & Match A service helping CSU students find compatible roommates for off-campus housing situations.
• Housing Fair An annual event connecting CSU students with apartment complexes, property managers, and housing-related service providers.
• Community Welcome An annual door-to-door outreach program where volunteers distribute brochures about city ordinances and university expectations to approximately 2,000 homes near campus.
• Fall Clean Up A volunteer program pairing student volunteers with Fort Collins neighbors to help with yard work tasks including raking leaves, mowing, weeding, and cleaning gutters.
• Shovel Snowdown A winter program providing free snow shovels to off-campus students living in detached dwellings, in partnership with the City of Fort Collins and Joseph's Hardware & Home Center.
• Student Handbook An annually updated handbook providing comprehensive information about off-campus housing in Fort Collins, including housing ordinances and city regulations.

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Fort Collins City GovernmentcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 August 2024Partnership with Fort Collins city departments for Community Welcome program, city code education, snow ordinance enforcement, and neighborhood integration between students and long-term residents. Fort Collins Police and Neighborhood Services participate in joint volunteer efforts.
• Colorado State University (CSU)coreOthersOff-Campus Life is a department within CSU's Division of Student Affairs. Funded by student fees, the office operates as an official university resource for off-campus housing and community matters.
• Joseph's Hardware & Home CenterminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with local hardware store for the Shovel Snowdown program, where students receive free snow shovels to help clear public sidewalks in compliance with Fort Collins snow ordinance.
• ASCSU (Associated Students of CSU)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerASCSU originally founded the RamRide safe ride program in 2003. The program was transferred to Off-Campus Life administration in 2013.
• Fort Collins Police and CSU PolicecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint participation in Community Welcome program and neighborhood safety initiatives. Police officers join student and staff volunteers in door-to-door neighborhood welcome efforts.
• Fort Collins Apartment Complexes and Property ManagerscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorApartment complexes and property management companies participate in the annual Housing Fair, utilizing OCL's platform to connect with CSU students seeking off-campus housing.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Roommates.com: Roommates.com is a dedicated roommate-finding platform that overlaps with OCL's Roommate Meet & Match service. It operates at national scale where OCL operates locally at CSU.
• Places4Students.com: Places4Students provides off-campus housing listings and roommate matching services for college and university students, often under partnership agreements with student affairs departments. It is functionally comparable to OCL's RentalSearch and roommate services.
• College Pads: College Pads operates an off-campus housing marketplace targeted at college students, offering listings, roommate search, and landlord tools. It directly competes with OCL's RentalSearch and roommate matching services, and is used by student-affairs offices at multiple universities.
• Off-Campus Partners (OCP): OCP is a private company that partners with universities to provide off-campus housing search, roommate matching, and landlord-tenant resources. It is the closest commercial analog to Off-Campus Life, differing mainly in that OCP serves many universities under contract while OCL is a single in-house university department.

Broad incumbents

• Zillow Rentals: Zillow's rentals vertical is a major consumer-facing rental search platform that competes with OCL's housing resources. It is a broad incumbent with significant scale advantages and brand recognition among college students.
• Apartments.com (CoStar): Apartments.com is a large-scale rental marketplace that competes broadly with OCL's housing search functionality. While not student-specific, it captures a significant share of student rental search traffic and is a baseline alternative to the OCL RentalSearch database.

Emerging players

• CampusBuddy / student engagement platforms: Student engagement and off-campus life platforms that bundle housing, events, and student life content for university students. These are emerging SaaS-style competitors to OCL's broader student-life portal.
• WalkSafe / SafeRide-style campus transportation programs: WalkSafe and similar nighttime campus safety apps are an emerging category that competes with OCL's RamRide program. They offer on-demand safe-ride features with mobile-first UX, representing a technological alternative to OCL's volunteer-driven safe ride.

Regional players

• University Student Housing offices at peer institutions (e.g., CU Boulder Off-Campus Housing): Comparable university-run off-campus housing offices at other U.S. universities (e.g., CU Boulder, University of Oregon) offer the same model of free, in-house housing support. These are functional peers — operating at other campuses in different geographies with similar scope.

Others

• Fort Collins housing market participants (e.g., Cordell Partners, The Standard at Fort Collins): Local Fort Collins apartment complexes and property managers that participate in OCL's Housing Fair. They are not product peers but are essential ecosystem partners — and could in principle disintermediate OCL by marketing directly to students.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/offcampusrams/?hl=en
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ocl-colostate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Off-Campus Life