Cal State East Bay’s student apartments, Pioneer Heights, will expand this fall and a few rooms will be converted from double space bedrooms to triple space bedrooms, according to their website.

Freshman suites previously consisted of four spaces with two bedrooms per space, a kitchenette, a living room, two bathrooms and two showers that accommodated eight total students. Some of the spaces will now have a bunk bed and a single bed to accommodate a third student and increase the suite capacity to 10 students.

The plan was created earlier this summer as a temporary solution to the 200 plus student wait list, while the development of the fourth apartment complex of housing is still in its approval process through the Chancellor’s Office with no date set.

“The wait list for first year freshman was over 200 [students], with the addition of these bed spaces the wait list will be brought down below 200 as of today, July 28,” said Mark Almeida, Associate Director of Housing and Dining Operations.

Two years ago, Pioneer Heights converted 12 study lounges in the freshman halls into bedroom spaces that gave students access to the apartment from the hallway. According to housing, Hayward’s Fire Marshall required modifications to the rooms due to the lack of sufficient exits from the study lounges in case of emergency. The solution was to convert the rooms into the apartments, eliminating the door and having two rooms connected with one door to enter both.

That same year CSUEB Housing converted 48 of their double room suites into triples, which is the same model currently being used for the freshman halls. “We sent out a survey to the incoming freshman who applied for housing and the majority of them responded they are willing to live in a triple room,” said Kimberly Reyes, Pioneer Heights Housing Analyst. According to Reyes, students who have signed up for their housing portal after applying were given the survey prior to the contracts being sent out.

Residents were able to log into the Housing Portal, the online communication service offered by Pioneer Heights, and switch their first preference to Triple Occupancy Freshman Suite. The triple rooms are priced at a little over $10,000 whereas the double rooms are $12,000 per year.

The triple rooms allow students to save more than $1000 dollars per year to live on campus, and will be receiving new furniture to accommodate the spaces. The response of support from incoming students sparked the plan for the room change to move forward to move forward with the state and university facilities to have the rooms ready by the fall.

There will be a total of 40 bedrooms converted; this will allow 40 additional students to live on campus.