CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Robin Guerrero, 17, called a friend yesterday after moving into her room at the Hale Aloha Mokihana Tower on the UH-Manoa campus. "It's hot," she said of her new digs. Incoming freshmen like Guerrero, who moved from Maui to study psychology at UH, were given first priority for dorm space.

No room
at the dorm

A residence hall crunch
at UH-Manoa leaves 350 students
without accommodations this fall

While 3,000 University of Hawaii students move their belongings into their Manoa dormitory rooms during the next few days, 350 students who had hoped to join them will have to wait until next year.

Yesterday was freshman move-in day at UH-Manoa, and by Monday, the first day of classes, 3,000 students will be occupying every bed available in UH's five residence halls.

But about 350 students, down from 900 in early July, who applied on time for campus housing have had to find their own accommodations due to an unusually large housing crunch caused by rising enrollment, fewer available beds and a shortage in rentals off campus.

Incoming freshmen were given first priority for dorm space, followed by international, mainland and neighbor island students.

Hotel rooms in Waikiki at the Ohana Reef hotel are no longer available to UH students. The Gateway House dorm, which was closed in January for repairs, has been reopened, but there are 22 fewer units available because the rooms need further repairs that will not be completed until spring.

"I'm so glad I'm not one those people that didn't get a room," said freshman Jason Travis, as he toted a laundry basket yesterday piled high with pillows and bed linens to his room in Hale Aloha. "I guess I got lucky."

Last month, university housing officials petitioned the community for help to alleviate the housing crunch. The real-estate branch of Roberts Hawaii responded with an offer to rent 130 hotel condominium units in the Hawaiian Monarch Hotel to students at a market price of $1,000 a month.

So far, 34 units have been rented to students, and Sam Shenkus, media spokeswoman for the company, said the Roberts Hawaii property manager continues to receive applications from students who still have not found housing.

"As a local, family-owned business, we just wanted to do something to help the kids," Shenkus said referring to Roberts Hawaii's offer.

Apart from Roberts Hawaii, no other formal housing arrangements have been made between the university and local hotels, apartment owners or landlords to accommodate the student overflow.