NORMAL - Illinois State University students returning to campus this week are finding a shift in campus housing that means fewer upperclassmen living in dorms. | ISU's off-campus choices expanding | Police warning drivers to be cautious as school resumes

Last year about 7,000 of the university's roughly 20,000 students spent the year in residence halls.

But this fall 1,000 fewer will be staying on campus, mostly because the demolition of Dunn-Barton and Walker halls this summer took out 800 beds and another 800 were lost during Manchester Hall renovations this year.

To accommodate the Dunn-Barton and Walker demolition - which will make room for the planned $50 million Student Fitness and Kinesiology/Recreation Center - ISU took two steps: Adapting existing spaces for living quarters and banning upperclassmen from reserving dorm rooms early in the room-booking process.

First, housing officials began to map out where rooms could be created.

"We tried to identify additional spaces and to turn as many of those into housing options," said Maureen Blair, ISU housing director.

Triple-occupancy rooms in Watterson Towers turned into four person rooms - called "quads" - allowing ISU to add nearly 200 beds. That will bring Watterson's population close to 2,400.

Another 400 spots evolved from renovating four residence halls' lounge spaces into quads and several guest apartments into doubles and quads. The university also ended its practice of allowing upperclassman to pay extra to occupy a double-occupancy room as a single.

The university expects all students assigned to lounge spaces will be re-assigned to normal rooms by the end of fall semester, said Blair.

ISU also delayed when upperclassmen could enter the pool for dorm rooms.

Last spring ISU announced upperclassmen would not be able to request on-campus rooms in February, which had been allowed under the previous policy. Instead they had to wait until after May 1, when ISU would have a better sense of its freshman class size.

As turns out, ISU needed that delay. ISU will have nearly 3,400 freshmen - or roughly 100 more than its target enrollment, said Jonathan Rosenthal, vice president of enrollment management and academic services.

He said ISU also was hit with an 11 percent surge in applications for this fall.

ISU requires virtually all freshmen and sophomores to live in residence halls. So first, the university wanted to ensure space was available for that group of students, said Blair.

Close to 700 upperclassmen put their names on a waiting list.

"Everyone on the waiting list we were able to offer space," she said. About 100 of those had opted to live off-campus instead, however, she said.

Some student groups have criticized ISU leadership, not so much for the housing policy decision, but for failure to announce it earlier in school year.

ISU student trustee Geno Bagnuolo, a Bolingbrook senior, said previously the announcement last spring came after the better apartments already were rented. Many fall leases already had been signed in December and January, he said.

Major move-in starts Wednesday

On Monday, ISU's move-in officially began with international students and others filling Atkin-Colby and Hamilton-Whitten halls.

But on Wednesday and Thursday, the bulk of on-campus students - about 4,000 - will arrive in time for Friday's orientation.

Blair expects most returning students to arrive throughout the weekend instead.

ISU police, campus staff and student volunteers oversee the mid-week operation, which was overhauled a year ago. The new system makes for a smoother operation, said Blair, because now each new student is assigned a move-in time.

"People really cooperated, and I think it worked better," she said.

There are shuttles from parking areas, and volunteers cover certain areas based on when those areas are expected to be busy.

"Students move in according to floor assignments, so the elevators don't tend to make so many stops and we can have more staff at specific floors to provide more help," she said.

But, the days still mean thousands of additional cars in uptown Normal and around campus, so as always ISU and town leaders encourage local residents to avoid the area unless they have to be there.