SAN MARCOS -- Most of Cal State San Marcos' full-time students are gone for the summer, but that doesn't mean the university's dorms are sitting empty.

The company that manages the dorms is renting them out to groups having conferences and other events in the next couple of months.

Dorm director Brian Dawson said recently that middle and high school students in youth leadership or college-preparatory programs are among the most frequent tenants who stay for a few days, a week or more.

Teachers having continuing education conferences are another frequent group, he said.

University officials said Monday that dorm rooms go for $32 per person per night during the summer. Summer rentals have generated $125,000 to $250,000 annually over the last five years, with the amount going up as the dorms attracted more business, the officials said.

Dawson said the management company keeps about 4.5 percent of the revenue.

He predicted that this year's dorm rental revenues will be lower because the spiraling economy has probably forced some companies and parents to pass on summer conferences and camps.

Even so, several groups have already reserved blocks of rooms this summer, with July being particularly popular, Dawson said.

CSUSM spokeswoman Margaret Lutz said the money that summer dorm rentals bring in helps offset housing costs for full-time students. The same groups that use the dorms for summer events often rent classrooms and other campus facilities, generating as much as $80,000 in additional revenue a year, she said.

University officials believe there is an even bigger benefit, though -- especially when middle and high school students are involved, Lutz said.

"For students who are college-bound and even thinking about attending, it's a terrific opportunity to showcase the campus," she said. "Students often will be on campus, in the classrooms or in the M. Gordon Clarke Field House (gym and meeting center), so they really get to experience what college life is like."

Opened in 2003 and known as University Village Apartments, the dorms have 135 apartments in three buildings on the northeast corner of campus. The complex houses 625 students during the regular academic year.

Dawson said about a third of those stick around during the summer, for jobs or other reasons.

The regular residents are consolidated into a single building for the summer, leaving the other two buildings available for temporary guests, he said.

Quantum Learning Network, an Oceanside-based company that runs summer academic camps and workshops for middle and high school-age kids, was one of the first organizations to start renting CSUSM's dorms during the summer. Dawson said the company has is now a repeat customer every year.

The company's marketing director could not be reached for comment Monday. However, a news release about the company's SuperCamps describes Cal State as "the higher education leader in the northern San Diego region" that is "infused with boundless optimism."

Dawson said Quantum is a particularly good customer because the company's camps attract participants from around the world who probably wouldn't get a chance to see the university otherwise.

The campus is not the only beneficiary when such visitors stay in the dorms, he said.

"Conference industries bring in revenue to (local) food vendors and restaurants," Dawson said. "And parents, as they're picking up and dropping off (their children), are getting to visit our North County area. … They may add on a vacation with us or find another reason to stay a little while. So it's helping out both the campus and tourism as well."

CSUSM students also reap a direct benefit from a deal the university reached with the city of Vista, which uses the dorm rooms to house visiting actors participating in Moonlight Amphitheater's summer productions.

"We reached a bargain with them -- we give them free housing in exchange for free tickets for our students," Dawson said. "Most of them have never been to live theater."

Call staff writer Andrea Moss at 760-739-6654.