Nearly 60 students who had been living in overcrowded Sandburg Hall have been relieved of their cramped living situation, leaving 140 rooms in excess of normal occupancy.

Initially, 200 rooms had to be converted in order to accommodate too many students. Singles rooms were turned into doubles, doubles into triples and triples to quadruples.

Lindsey King used to have another girl in her single-turned-double East Tower room. She only had to put up with the cramped space for two weeks before University Housing found her roommate another room.

“I’m glad UWM housing could move her out in a reasonable time,” King said. “It was cramped, very tight.”

As with any kind of situation where comfort of space is jeopardized, Director of University Housing Scott Peak heard plenty of complaints. Most of the complaints actually came from parents.

Peak, a father of a junior in college, said that the importance of what the students think trump the parents’ concerns.

“We’re concerned with (the students’) environment,” Peak said. “The students are the ones involved in it and they’re the ones being affected … we want to make sure they’re the ones we’re making our adjustments with.”

However, even with some situations that are uncomfortable, Peak said that some groups of roommates have come and asked if they can stay together, because they’ve gotten along so well — even in the cramped situation.

University Housing is more than happy to honor the requests of roommates who are happy with their overbooked room. Peak said it will help the department accommodate other students who would like to be removed from an overcrowded room.

Dave Sagehorn, a South Tower resident assistant, has three rooms in his overbooked suite. He said he hasn’t had to confront any problems.

“It's not solved yet, but (the rooms) have steadily been emptying,” Sagehorn said. “We've been told that everything is still on track to be fixed by second semester.”

The affected students received a letter that said that if they did not want to move in right away, they could delay their move-in until second semester. About 20 students opted for this choice and all are guaranteed rooms for second semester.

This also means that if any student wishes to terminate their contract at semester, they will be allowed to do so without the termination fee.

Peak said students terminate contracts at semester for many different reasons. Sometimes it’s because of grades, other times they desire a change in environment or a change in family situations.

“We normally have about 220 spaces that open up at second semester time,” Peak said.

Geoff Donaldson and Eric Adamski’s third roommate has moved out.

“He just didn’t like the situation and decided he would be happier off campus,” Donaldson said of the third roommate. “I’m happy that University Housing was timely in moving out the extra furniture.”

The overcrowding was the result of a 44 percent return in contracts in comparison with the 30 percent average the department usually receives. Peak lends this trend partly to the basketball team’s stint in the NCAA tournament last year. He said that contracts flowed in during the tournament.

“It’s also the good academic programs that are attracting (students) and people want the urban experience,” Peak said. “It’s such a great place to come and go to school and enjoy the city and what it has to offer.”

To make sure something like this doesn’t happen again, Peak’s solution is simple. University Housing will send out fewer housing contracts at the outset.

“I would never put students in the position of being inconvenienced intentionally,” Peak said. “We’re just going to learn from it and make sure we put controls on it for the future.”

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