Department of Residence officials said the department is prepared to meet housing needs, even in the face of all-time high enrollment.

Despite additional rooms opening in Hawthorn Court this year, more students will still be assigned to temporary housing this year than in the past, said communications specialist for the residence halls Kate Bruns.

“We have students in temporary housing every year. We always end up getting everybody in,” Bruns said.

Eric Farley, junior in construction engineering, said some students who are placed in temporary housing choose to remain on campus by moving into fraternities or sororities.

Farley said he joined a fraternity instead of being placed in temporary housing.

“I was very excited to come to school and get settled in,” he said. “But the thought of being placed in temporary housing made the apprehensions of being a new student even worse.”

David Stout, an incoming freshman, said after he sent in his application for a residence hall room, he was told he would be placed in temporary housing.

“They sent me a piece of paper telling me that I was living in the den of a floor in Towers,” he said. “I just received a letter this week telling me that I had been given a room assignment.”

Both Farley and Stout said they felt temporary housing would have detracted from both their experiences and education at Iowa State.

The Department of Residence is allowing sophomores to live in Hawthorn Court this year to make more space available in the residence halls, Bruns said.

“We made a one-time offer opening two-bedroom apartments to sophomores, juniors and seniors [with residence hall contracts] to see if they’d be interested in contracting their residence hall rooms,” Bruns said.

She said there has been a great response to this offer.

The apartments offered are designed for two students to live in each bedroom and are not as popular as the apartments with single occupancy rooms, Bruns said.

She said 1,008 spaces were available last year in Hawthorn Court. In the fall there will be 600 additional spaces, and in the spring the total will increase to 1,992 rooms.

These slots will be filled almost immediately, she said.

Bruns said there was a significant increase in upperclassmen retention in university housing when Hawthorn Court opened last year.

“Students are staying on campus because they’re getting the housing they want through Hawthorn Court,” she said.