The numbers looked strange. In early March, the University of Missouri had received many more campus-housing contracts than it expected. Each year many upperclassmen cancel their agreements after finding an off-campus rental, leaving enough spaces for incoming students. But on March 17, the first day freshmen could select their rooms online, there was a problem. Space was just disappearing. After years of more and more students moving off the campus after a year or two, an unexpectedly large crop of upperclassmen wanted to return in the fall--about 40 percent more than last year. Meanwhile, the freshman class had increased by 14 percent over 2007, and more of them wanted housing. Missouri's housing crunch is similar to those on several other campuses. As off-campus costs rise and college dorms become cushier, many colleges report an increasing demand for on-campus residences among sophomores, juniors, and seniors. For colleges that will welcome record numbers of freshmen this year, housing officials find themselves caught between two rising waves. This article describes how college housing officers, overwhelmed with requests from upperclassmen for rooms in dormitories, find creative solutions to the space crunch.