Some students are spending their first college days sleeping in dorm lounges and hotel rooms.

Housing officials at West Virginia University say students no are longer staying in lounges, as they were when classes started in August. Students at several other colleges around the state, though, still don't have dorm rooms because of housing shortages spurred by higher-than-usual enrollment.

About 80 Fairmont State University students are staying at a local Red Roof Inn hotel, said Dan Gockley, director of residence life. That's down from almost 100 when school started.

The school's dealt with housing shortages in the past, but usually only 35 to 50 students don't get a room, he said.

"We have had quite a few more applications this year," he said, adding that there's been an increase in out-of-state and international students.

Two resident assistants also are living at the hotel, which is about five miles from campus. Local buses and university shuttle vans have added extra routes to take students to and from campus, Gockley said.

Officials aren't sure how long the students will stay in the hotel, but Gockley said it probably would be "for quite a while."

To free up space, Fairmont State sophomores are allowed to live off campus this year, rather than waiting until they're juniors, he added.

Gockley and other housing officials say rooms usually open up as time goes on. Some students don't show up, and others leave school for personal or financial reasons.

"Residence halls are ... kind of like cities," said Rick Dillon, housing and residence life director at Concord University. "People come and go."

This year, Concord had one of its largest freshman classes ever, and about 150 students are living in "triples" that were meant to be doubles, Dillon said.

When classes started, dozens of students were sleeping in lounges, Dillon said. Now, only five male students are in a lounge.

The school spent $70,000 to prepare for the extra residents, Dillon said - purchasing extra beds, dressers and desks and upgrading the entire Internet system to add ports to students' rooms, which usually only have two ports.

For the first time in recent memory, college officials let juniors live off campus if they wanted to, Dillon said. Usually, only seniors can live off campus.

Some students are spending their first college days sleeping in dorm lounges and hotel rooms.

Housing officials at West Virginia University say students no are longer staying in lounges, as they were when classes started in August. Students at several other colleges around the state, though, still don't have dorm rooms because of housing shortages spurred by higher-than-usual enrollment.

About 80 Fairmont State University students are staying at a local Red Roof Inn hotel, said Dan Gockley, director of residence life. That's down from almost 100 when school started.

The school's dealt with housing shortages in the past, but usually only 35 to 50 students don't get a room, he said.

"We have had quite a few more applications this year," he said, adding that there's been an increase in out-of-state and international students.

Two resident assistants also are living at the hotel, which is about five miles from campus. Local buses and university shuttle vans have added extra routes to take students to and from campus, Gockley said.

Officials aren't sure how long the students will stay in the hotel, but Gockley said it probably would be "for quite a while."

To free up space, Fairmont State sophomores are allowed to live off campus this year, rather than waiting until they're juniors, he added.

Gockley and other housing officials say rooms usually open up as time goes on. Some students don't show up, and others leave school for personal or financial reasons.

"Residence halls are ... kind of like cities," said Rick Dillon, housing and residence life director at Concord University. "People come and go."

This year, Concord had one of its largest freshman classes ever, and about 150 students are living in "triples" that were meant to be doubles, Dillon said.

When classes started, dozens of students were sleeping in lounges, Dillon said. Now, only five male students are in a lounge.

The school spent $70,000 to prepare for the extra residents, Dillon said - purchasing extra beds, dressers and desks and upgrading the entire Internet system to add ports to students' rooms, which usually only have two ports.

For the first time in recent memory, college officials let juniors live off campus if they wanted to, Dillon said. Usually, only seniors can live off campus.

Concord officials are exploring building a new residence hall, Dillon said. The school hasn't built one since 1969. Today, a 200-person hall would cost between $5 million and $6 million, and a 400- to 500-person building would cost $12 million to $13 million, he said.

"It's always a big project, and one that we have started looking at seriously," Dillon said. "It's not a quick fix. We also realize that we have to renovate existing residence halls, and we're trying to find money for that."

Across the country, many institutions are seeing higher student enrollments, said Paul Hassen, a spokesman for the National Association for State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

According to a report by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, the number of high school graduates nationwide has rapidly grown for 14 straight years.

"It's a demographic bubble," Hassen said.

The report predicts those numbers have topped out this year, and now will gradually decline, reaching the lowest point around 2013-14 before slowly rising again.

Nationally, "this is one the largest graduating classes," said Brenda Thompson, vice president for enrollment management at WVU.

WVU had a record-breaking freshmen class of about 5,180 students. That meant more than 115 stayed in lounges that were converted to sleeping spaces, said Trish Cendana , director for residential education. She said all of those students now have permanent housing.

WVU's newest residence hall, Lincoln, opened in 2006. Another one is scheduled to open next fall for the honors college.

It's getting harder for school officials to predict who will actually show up for school, Thompson said. In the past few years, more students have been paying deposits at multiple institutions to hold their places.

"Students more and more are just keeping their options open," she said.

WVU officials are planning on a freshman class of about 5,000 people next year, she said.

Not all colleges have housing shortages this semester. The dorms at Marshall University are only about 80 percent full, university spokesman Dave Wellman said.

 Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com">alis...@wvgazette.com or 348-1240.