The student dorms at CSU East Bay are bulging at the seams and housing authorities are proposing a case study to persuade the CSU chancellor’s office to build more accommodations to alleviate crowding on campus.

“We actually are in the process of completing what is called a market-demand analysis to show how many more beds we could actually fill if we were to have [more rooms],” said Student Housing Director Martin Castillo.

Currently, the university is facing an influx of roughly 200 students who are on the waitlist to receive on-campus housing, said Castillo. The rise is due to the increase of students coming to East Bay from southern California.

The university has converted 12 study lounges into freshman dorms that mirror currently existing suite rooms. Castillo said these permanent changes were completed about a month ago with approval of a state fire marshal representative.

“So, if you look at the floor plans, we have identical units, like suites,” said Castillo. “And there’s these study rooms, [which] are carved out as a study room but they created a wall. The other rooms have the same design, but they have it as a dorm room.”

In addition, they converted 48 double-rooms, referred to by Castillo as “triple spaces,” where they bunked one bed and added and an extra bed to the dorm room allowing three students instead of two.

Yet, this was not enough, said Castillo. An additional 90 beds were rented out of University Village, located on Carlos Bee Blvd., through a master lease.

Castillo said there is a high chance of the proposal for new housing being accepted by the chancellor’s office. He expects to present it in January 2014. If the report passes through the chancellor’s office, the university is looking to break ground next summer to have the housing available in fall 2015, said Keat Saw, planning, design and construction director.

The new development would be built somewhere behind the existing dorms in parking lot C and C1 according to Saw. Yet, planning won’t begin until after approval by the chancellor.

The plan to request more housing began about six months ago. Castillo said it remains to be seen how big the project will be.

“It all depends on how many beds are actually approved. So, for about additional 600 beds, it’s going to be approximately anywhere from $30 to $34 million.”

The new construction would be the fourth stage of student housing on campus. Three previous stages have produced 10 dorms.