Unprecedented numbers of students crammed into Sacramento State?s parking lots and classrooms Monday morning as the university braced itself for a record enrollment expected to top 27,000.

This semester?s high enrollment number is the result of a three-year period that has seen a gain of 3,000 students, said Ann Reed, Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs. The previous high was 26,339 in 1990, though enrollment usually stays between 22,000 and 24,000, according to the Public Affairs Office.

“This will be a record setting year,” Reed said.

Many students faced traffic jams, full parking lots and long lines on their way to classes. Leiloni Herrera, a graduate student in social work, said she drove in circles trying to find a parking spot ? and said she was lucky to get that far.

“It took 45 minutes to get off the freeway and get into the parking lot,” Herrera said. “That?s not even talking about finding a parking space.”

The university is taking both immediate and long-term measures to handle the increased growth, which is expected to reach 32,000 by 2010, according to Public Affairs.

Reed attributed the explosion of incoming students to the vast amount of the population moving into the college demographic.

“The children of the baby boomers are now reaching college age in record numbers,” Reed said.

In addition, Sacramento?s relatively low cost of living has made it an attractive city for students who would otherwise have to go school in the expensive Bay Area, Reed said.

The university has also intensified recruitment through increased cooperation with high schools and “Saturday college” programs designed to prepare high school students for college, according to Reed.

Summer session classes are being used to help curb over-enrollment in popular classes and to speed up enrollment, Reed said. These classes are offered at lower cost than regular fall and spring semester classes.

“If you can get students through the process more quickly, that makes room for those behind them to get in,” Reed said.

According to Larry Glasmire, Director of Special Programs and Enrollment Analysis at Sac State, summer enrollment numbers exceeded expectations.

“We had close to 4,700 students who took classes this summer,” Glasmire said.

There will also be an increase in alternative scheduling and off-campus and distance education courses to help deal with the increase in students. Reed said it was unclear how the increase would affect the student-to-teacher ratio.

“I have heard no talk of changing our class size,” Reed said.

But Herrera said she already had one class cancelled due to lack of classroom space.

“We pay a lot in tuition and books, and I think it?s outrageous that it takes four hours to stand in line for parking passes and books,” Herrera said.

The university has projects lined up in the future to help ease the enrollment growth, Reed said. These include the construction of Modoc Hall ? a 79,000 square foot classroom, laboratory and office building, which is slated to break ground next fall ? and plans for a new 1,000-room residence hall, Reed said. There are also three new parking garages being planned, one of which is scheduled to begin construction in October.

In the meantime, Reed encourages students to help ease the parking problem by taking off-hour classes and car-pooling.

“There are lots of options,” Reed said.