Students who live on campus won’t be encountering many empty beds this fall.

A total of 4,896 students are living on campus this semester, and only 4,906 beds are available, said Brian Kuster, director of Housing and Residence Life.

Kuster said that 2,026 students returned to the dorms this fall, while 2,870 new students moved in.

Initially, the dorms were overbooked, he said.

WKU gave sophomores with a 3.2 grade point average the opportunity to move off campus with the regular $1,000 fee waived, Kuster said. Around 70 sophomores took advantage of the offer.

Because so few originally took the offer, students with 20 or more credit hours were given the same opportunity, he said. Of that group, about 170 students accepted.

“All in all we didn’t get a very large number, but we only needed a couple hundred beds free,” Kuster said.

Howard Bailey, vice president for Student Affairs, said last week that one of WKU’s goals has always been to increase the number of students living on campus.

“We want students to see living on campus as a way of life they want to continue,” Bailey said. “That has occurred.”

Due to the influx of upperclassmen wanting to stay on campus, WKU is in the process of building an apartment complex in the Block 12 area on Kentucky Street, Bailey said.

It will be intended for upperclassmen and will house about 72 students, Kuster said.

Bailey said the goal of the apartment complex is to increase diversity by giving students another housing option without leaving campus.

Dixon junior Brittany Crowley still lives on campus and said she would be interested in living at the apartment complex once it’s completed.

“The idea of having an apartment is very appealing for us, especially as upperclassmen,” she said. “Having an apartment makes you sound much more mature and independent, but I think that at the same time, if it’s in affiliation with a college, it would make it so much easier to attain.”

Crowley said she chooses to still live on campus because her scholarship includes a housing allowance.

But WKU does offer amenities that make it enticing to stay, she said.

“I like the ease of access to campus,” Crowley said. “I mean, you’re right here. You can be to class in just a few minute-walk, and you have food readily available.”

Crowley said she believes some students opt to move off campus after two years because they get tired of certain restrictions.

“I lived in (Rodes-Harlin Hall) the past two years, and it was really annoying for me having limitations, especially when I would have my boyfriend over,” she said. “Being in an all-girls dorm, they’re very particular about when you can have guys over. There are also some of the smaller things – I’d love to have a coffee maker, and, of course, things like that aren’t allowed in the dorm.”