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As residents of the Sandburg Hall dormitories moved in last week, they found the suites that normally house four students may house as many as seven.

Sophomore Nate Dantoin is in a quadruple. “This better not last for very long,” Dantoin said. “I“m pissed.”

The dormitories set a new record in housing more than 3,000 students. Its average capacity is 2,700 over the past 30 years. University Housing (UHO) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has not seen such a high return rate for the residence contracts.

Kelly Johnson, assistant hall director at Sandburg, said the trend has been for 33 percent of the freshman class to return housing contracts, but this year 44 percent were returned.

“We experienced a higher number of returns than normal,” Johnson said. “Normally you get a bunch of cancellations and it“s been that way (for) 30 years.” This year was clearly different “ UHO had to borrow extra desks and beds from UW-Oshkosh.

In order to accommodate for the above-average enrollment, some single, double and triple units are being made to house an extra person, making the units doubles, triples and quadruples, respectively. Overall, 200 rooms were converted to accommodate the housing problem.

Geoff Donaldson, a sophomore, was not happy to find out that he and his roommate, Eric Adamski, will be sharing their 14-by-9.5-feet double unit with another body. He received an e-mail about the change on Aug. 23.

“Had I known there was going to be this type of problem, I would have just lived off campus instead,” Donaldson said. “Instead I got an e-mail not even 10 days before I was supposed to move in, so I didn“t have too many options at that point.”

The e-mail sent out to residents who were affected said that there would be a $498 credit to their accounts for the inconvenience. The e-mail also said that the situation should only last for the fall semester.

“I hope the situation changes before (next) semester,” Adamski said. “This really sucks.”

The students who decided to opt out of living at Sandburg were encouraged to do so. The 220 students who gave up their spot completely had their Gold Account credited $350 and a full refund of their deposit to UHO. Normally, there is a fee for canceling a housing contract with short notice.

Students who were unhappy with their living situation could decide to wait to move in until second semester “ and 25 did “ and receive the whole semester of housing for free.

Area hotels were contacted and asked to bid for the opportunity to house some of the “overflow” from Sandburg Hall. Hotels rejected the bids by UHO in early August. The move-in date was Aug. 28.

“At that point, we were obligated to find spaces for them, and that“s what we did,” Johnson said. “We hope that those students affected don“t have to deal with the uncomfortable situation for long.”

According to the Regents“ policies for the state of Wisconsin, “students have the primary responsibility for the formulation and review of policies concerning student life, services and interests.”

The policy goes on to state, “The students of each institution or campus â?¦ shall be active participants in the immediate governance of and policy development for such institutions.”

The university has no real solution at the moment and will begin moving students around as openings arrive, Johnson said.

“A lot of people were mad at first,” said main-desk worker Jen Kitzman, who was one of the many who helped handle the move-in. “I say it“s one more person to add as your lifelong friend.”

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