DURHAM, N.H. (AP) – The University of New Hampshire is grappling with how to house what officials say probably is the largest freshman class in the school’s history.

Robert McGann, admissions director, says there are 2,809 freshmen this fall, up from 2,572 last fall.

As a result, about 300 dormitory rooms intended to house two students have three instead. And 60 student lounges have been converted into rooms housing five students.

The school says students can move as space becomes available because of students dropping out, being evicted or transferring.

There is some crowding every fall at UNH, which has about 10,500 undergraduates. The 300 “forced triples” this fall compares with 260 last fall.

But the 60 lounges converted to dorm rooms this fall is five times the number of such conversions last fall, UNH spokeswoman Erika Mantz said.

“In recent memory, this is the most crowded it’s ever been,” she said.

The university provides campus housing to any freshman who wants it and has been steadily expanding the number of dorm rooms.

But Mantz said there is always uncertainty about how many students who are accepted will enroll, and the rate was high last spring.

When rooms were assigned last spring, there were at least 600 students who wouldn’t have fit in campus dorms if not for the forced triples and lounge conversions. About 40 percent of the students in the crowded rooms are freshmen.

Freshman Jessica Maxfield, 17, of Rochester, lives with two other women in a Stoke Hall forced triple.

“You don’t have any privacy at all,” she said. “It’s only been a week, but it’s kind of squishy. There’s not really a lot of room to put stuff in here.”

Some of the lounges, like one in Woodruff, are large enough, but lack privacy. Blankets cover the lounge’s floor-to-ceiling glass windows that face a hallway.

Nick Weber, 18, a freshman from Littleton, figures it could be worse.

“Some other kids who are in a built-up triple, they say we have way more room,” Weber said.

The lounge room also has new furniture and a second-floor deck, a feature freshman Will Payne, 18, of Antrim, appreciates.

“A lot of the girls just love the deck. That’s what it boils down to,” he said.

Information from: New Hampshire Union Leader, http://www.theunionleader.com