Colleges plagued by housing shortages

MILWAUKEE -- Three's company in many college dormitories this year.\nA housing shortage at some Milwaukee-area colleges has forced students to accept more roommates than usual, breaking from tradition and introducing a new lifestyle arrangement on campus.\nRyan VanDeLoo, a freshman at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wis., is sharing his dorm room with two roommates this fall. What's more, all three are stocky college football players.\n"It's pretty crowded," VanDeLoo said of the 12-foot-wide room typically assigned to just two students. "We're hoping that our parents stop bringing stuff."\nMarquette University in Milwaukee has rented an entire hotel to manage its largest freshman class in 14 years.\nWhile housing crunches are nothing new at colleges and universities, some officials say the problem seems to be worsening.\n"We haven't had to do anything like this in a long time," Marquette spokesman Ben Tracy said.\nMarquette has rented the entire 40-room Executive Inn to handle overflow temporarily until rooms open up in campus housing.\nWisconsin is not the only state where colleges are in a pinch.\nGary Schwarzmueller, executive director of the Ohio-based Association of College and University Housing Officers-International, said housing is scarce in several parts of the country.\nNot only are high school graduates flocking to colleges and universities, displaced workers and other non-traditional students are driving enrollment higher during these tough economic times -- increasing the demand for housing even more.\n"Some places are having enormous, explosive growth," Schwarz-mueller said.