1100 students currently live on campus. There are only 1077 spaces to put them.37 students are forced to share 11 triple or quad rooms this fall. Many of the triple rooms were designed to house only two students and, due to limited space, were furnished with bunk beds and only two desks.

18 returning students are housed in six triples, converted from doubles, on the first floor of English Hall, and an additional four upperclassmen live in a quad converted from the first-floor lounge.

Three first-years are living in a triple converted from the second-floor lounge in Milner Hall, and 12 first-years are in converted quads in Binford Hall.

“Triples are as old as college,” said Aaron Fetrow, dean for Campus Life, emphasizing that the housing problem is not unique to Guilford.

President Kent Chabotar faced similar circumstances when he arrived for his freshman year of college in 1964. “I moved in to find two roommates already waiting for me,” he said.

According to Fetrow, the triple and quad rooms are “growing pains” for the college.

The last three first-year classes have been the largest three in Guilford’s history, with this year’s 431 first-years as the second largest. The large first-year class, combined with returning traditional students and a record 50 transfers, caused the total enrollment of full-time traditional students to reach a record-high of 1341 at the start of this fall semester.

The retention rate for first-year traditional students has increased last year, rising from 72 percent during the 2004-2005 academic year to 78 percent last year.

“It’s a great problem for the college to have,” Fetrow said. “The bad news is that we have three students in a room, but the good news is that it means we’re returning students. Students don’t always understand that our main goal is to get students to graduate, and that means keeping them here.”

For the students who live in the triple or quad rooms, a good problem is still a problem. “I’ve only stayed there once,” said sophomore Kyle Madden-Cox, who lives in a triple in English. “It’s as much for my roommates’ benefits as it is for mine. We have different lifestyles, and bouncing around three very different schedules is almost impossible.”

Students living in quads or triples received a $500 discount on housing, or roughly 33 percent, even if they move into a double.

“It’s awesome that they gave us a discount, especially since we can move out and still keep it,” Madden-Cox said. “My roommates intended to live together ever since last year, so hopefully I’ll be leaving soon.”

Campus Life hopes that students learn from the housing crisis. “The folks that got placed in three-person rooms are, for the most part, folks that didn’t do something according to our process,” Fetrow said.

“If you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, you risk being in this type of situation,” said Randy Doss, vice president for Enrollment and Campus Life. “It points out to students that we have deadlines.”

According to the Strategic Long Range Plan, traditional enrollment should reach 1505 by 2009, meaning that a solution will have to be found.

Two open forums will be held in September to discuss on-campus housing, both to be held in the Founders Hall second-floor Gallery.

“We’re on top of it,” Doss said. “We’re just waiting to talk to people about our options.”

Until the situation can be solved, the students in triples still have to find a way to cope.

“We only have two desks,” Madden-Cox said. “My roommate Heydn has to use my bed as a desk for his laptop. And since his ethernet cable couldn’t reach from the wall, I let him have my fancy ethernet extension cord.”

“Everybody on this floor’s been really understanding and mature about the problem,” said junior Rohit Ghandi, the R.A. for the first floor of English Hall. Ghandi said that his floor hasn’t experienced any more problems than any other dorm, and commended facilities and IT&S for quickly solving furniture and Internet problems.

“We all go to Guilford,” Madden-Cox said, “so it’s not in our nature to be unpleasant.