WASHINGTON — American University faces an on-campus housing shortage this fall. The school accepted more students than it has room for, ABC 7 reports.

American offered $500 gift cards to entice students to give up their on-campus living assignments. Officials also offered to waive the $500 termination fee for housing.

“Five-hundred dollars to me wasn’t enough, that much of an incentive to really want to take it,” says student Sarah Preston. Also, she says, it’s too late to find affordable off-campus housing for the fall.

For the semester, campus freshmen are being assigned to dorm rooms that have three students instead of two.

“I think some people like having an extra person,” student Theodore Freudenberg tells ABC 7. “But other people wouldn’t like having such a cramped space.”

The university’s vice president for housing and dining says they are working diligently over the next eight weeks to ensure satisfactory housing options for students.