High numbers of freshmen living in the residence halls have limited the number of single rooms and added to the crunch of students temporarily living in hotels and floor lounges.

“We’re totally filled,” said Donald Buckner, associate vice president for student affairs who works with the residence halls.

The overflow isn’t unusual. Buckner said NIU always starts the fall with students in temporary housing. The students must wait for weeks while housing arrangements are sorted out, because some who signed housing contracts never show up, while others drop out and open spots, he said.

But there’s a “new twist” this semester, Buckner said.

NIU is putting up about 30 of the 200 students in temporary housing at two local motels because of room shortages at the Holmes Student Center Hotel, Buckner said.

The student center hotel is short 15 guest rooms because parts of the University Health Service are using rooms as temporary quarters while its own headquarters are being renovated, Buckner said.

Like other years, about 90 students without permanent rooms are living in floor study lounges in Douglas and Neptune halls, Buckner said. The lounges are converted to triple-occupant rooms with more beds and dressers, he said.

Alan Vuchichevich, 19, a freshman English major from Elmhurst, lives in a Douglas Hall lounge after he decided in late summer to come to NIU.

“As housing goes, I’ve been in most of the other rooms on the floor, and this is nicer,” he said.

Buckner said 80 to 85 percent of students in temporary housing were out by Sept. 15 last year, but some were still in floor lounges at the end of the semester. While in hotels, the residents can eat at residence hall cafeterias.

Daniel Oborn, director of admissions, said NIU’s admissions pattern is similar to last year’s, but more freshmen were accepted and confirmed they would attend NIU.

While exact figures aren’t available yet, NIU has between 3,150 and 3,350 freshmen, Oborn said.

Because of the freshmen increase, the number of single-occupant rooms dropped from 400 last year to 200 this year, Buckner said.

About three years ago, housing officials considered closing a floor in Gilbert Hall, but “each year the freshmen enrollment has been a little better than we expected,” he said.

Because of the crunch for residence hall rooms, 250 people who applied for NIU housing were notified in July they could seek off-campus housing, Buckner said.

Some, however, opted to remain on the application list for a room and 75 eventually were assigned a residence hall room, he said.