Over the next few weeks, college students around America will make their way back to campus. For the incoming first-year students, that's an experience all to its own -- you find yourself in a brand new world, meeting people you've never met, and living in a dorm in a town you may have only visited twice before. But for returning students, the experience may be less hectic, especially if you have off-campus housing. In many areas, you can lease a house with some friends during the summer before your sophomore year and carry that lease forward through the rest of your college career. And even if you end up moving, that's also not a big deal -- sure, it's a pain to have to lug a couch and all your clothes, but you probably have friends who will help.

But not if you're in Madison, Wisconsin. Your friends can't help you move -- because chances are, they're moving, too. And even worse, you may not have anywhere to move to -- at least, not immediately.

Madison, the state capital, is home to the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin system. The university has more than 35,000 undergraduate students enrolled and another 10,000 or so graduate students, making Madison a college town -- only about 270,000 people live in the city altogether. When something affects the student body, all of Madison is impacted. And that's how this happens: