Chelsey Roberts navigated an orange cart Wednesday through the myriad students, parents and dormitory belongings waiting in multiple lines throughout the lobby of Stark Hall at Texas Woman’s University.

DRC/Al Key

Texas Woman’s University juniors Jesica Strittmatter, left, and Haley Brazell move their belongings to Stark Hall Wednesday afternoon in Denton.

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The freshman from Whitesboro borrowed the rolling cart from a sympathetic student, who waited more than an hour for the set of wheels.

Roberts was one of about 1,700 students who moved into the university’s dorms this week in preparation for the first day of class on Monday.

Classes at the University of North Texas begin today, and most of an estimated 5,700 students had moved into their dorm rooms by Wednesday.

So far, the dorms are comfortably full, said Betsy Warren, UNT housing director.

UNT students living in dorms moved in earlier this week with the assistance of staff, volunteers and a new computer check-in system that made the process simple, said Arielle Laguette, a student and residence hall adviser at Bruce Hall.

“It went extremely well,” Laguette said. “This was our best year yet. It went really smooth.”

The students seemed to trickle in throughout the busiest move-in day on Sunday, she said, and the waiting list for moving carts was kept to a handful of people.

The primary complaint about the Bruce Hall move-in stemmed from the 62-year-old residence hall not having elevators, Laguette said.

The TWU dorms have reached overflow capacity this school year, said Kenny Mauk, senior assistant director for university housing.

Mauk said that about 96 students are staying in guest dorm rooms or in student employee rooms until permanent beds can be located on the 12th day of class, when overflow students will move into permanent dorm rooms.

Roberts’ room is smaller than she would like, but she has a view of the campus from Stark Hall’s 14th floor and her furniture isn’t attached to the walls.

Overall, she said, she’s happy with her cramped quarters.

It took Roberts and her roommate, who she’s known since high school, about two hours to tote their belongings from their parents’ vehicles to their dorm room.

“It wasn’t too bad; I expected it to be worse,” Roberts said.

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com .