Southeast Missouri State University had to turn away less than a dozen prospective students to meet its freshmen enrollment cap and keep from overcrowding classrooms and campus housing for the fall semester, school officials say.

"It has been a much smoother process than I anticipated," said Dr. Pauline Fox, vice president of administration and enrollment management.

Worried that the university would run out of beds and classroom space for its new students, Southeast's Board of Regents in June capped fall freshmen enrollment.

School officials widely publicized the action in advance of the June 22 deadline. Fox said the publicity ensured that few students sought enrollment after the deadline.

She said those turned away had their enrollment deferred to the spring 2002 semester.

Fox said she made two exceptions: a freshman who transferred in having already taken a number of community college courses and a student recruited for the university's softball team.

Even with the enrollment cap, the university will be a crowded place this fall with record enrollment that could top 9,000 students and dorms filled to capacity. Fall classes begin Aug. 20.

Some move in early

Some students plan to move in early to avoid the rush.

Springfield, Ill., area resident David Biesenthal is one of those students. The sophomore will return to the Cape Girardeau campus Wednesday to move into his Towers South dorm room.

That puts him in a day ahead of the horde of more than 1,000 freshmen who are expected to descend on the campus Thursday in cars and vans filled with clothes, lamps, television sets, stereos, computers and other items of modern living.

"It will be a relief to get in before all the chaos of the freshmen getting there," he said.

By the end of the week, the university's residence halls are expected to be filled to near capacity with more than 2,300 students.

As of early August, 2,367 students were signed up to live in the campus residence halls. "We still have about 20 beds left," said Jim Settle, who heads up campus housing as director of Residence Life.

Biesenthal is looking forward to beating the rush. "It will be a relief to get in before all the chaos of the freshmen getting there," he said.

Biesenthal and several other members of the Baptist Student Union plan to help freshmen move in Thursday. They will be among an army of student volunteers and university staff who will be on hand to assist the new students.

Last year's hassle

"I hope it is better than it was last year," said Biesenthal, who as a freshman experienced the hassle of moving into the high-rise Towers complex last August.

He remembers hauling his belongings to a 10th floor dorm room at the same time as hundreds of other students were moving into the buildings. He and other students found themselves waiting in line at crowded elevators to haul up their gear.

"You wait forever at the elevators," he said.

Parking places near the high-rise Towers complex were almost impossible to find by mid-morning as students and their parents coped with a massive traffic jam. Construction projects on city streets near the campus added to the gridlock.

University officials say things should be better this year even though residence halls will be filled to capacity.

Construction work has been completed on a number of streets, including busy Broadway, a major route to the campus for parents and their families. That should help, said Fox.

Staggered moving

The university also has scheduled different blocks of time for students to move in. The goal, said Settle, is to keep from having everyone moving in at the same time. That way, he said, people can move in quicker.

Even though the majority of students won't begin arriving until Thursday, some students such as international students and football players already have moved in.

About 500 to 600 students and campus housing advisers will be living in the dorms by Tuesday, Settle said.

Campus crews are doing last-minute cleaning and fixing of residence halls as the university readies for the start of school. All of the residence halls are air conditioned except for Dearmont where about 330 students will be housed this fall.

Dearmont's lounges and commons area are air conditioned, but the rooms aren't.

Still, Settle's confident students can cope with the heat.

Said Settle, "Colleges have been around a long time; air conditioning is fairly new."