In response to Penn State's on-campus housing shortage for the 2006-07 year, the Association of Residence Halls Students (ARHS) has created an ad hoc housing committee to assist students who did not receive a housing contract.

The association hopes to benefit students such as Jennifer Quinn (freshman-division of undergraduate studies), who found herself in a bind earlier this semester when she did not receive the housing contract she expected and was placed in supplemental housing.

Quinn said she was unhappy with the situation and decided to rent an apartment in Beaver Hill, 340 E. Beaver Ave., for next year. Quinn is not alone in her scramble to obtain an apartment for next year; between 1,300 and 1,400 other students did not receive a contract at all.

Abbey Rhode, president of ARHS, said she has spoken to multiple students concerned about the lack of housing.

"It seems that, generally, students are kind of surprised this is happening and are concerned about what the situation is going to be next year," Rhode said. "Hopefully, we're able to prevent from too many students from feeling lost and feeling like they don't have options."

Adam Burget (sophomore-arts and architecture) was elected chairman of the new committee at the ARHS meeting Monday night. In a nomination speech, he said he wants to head the committee because it is important that people have the correct information about the ongoing situation. Burget said he realizes there may not be a lot ARHS can do, but he wants to provide answers about the housing problem for those who need them.

In addition to offering immediate assistance to those not offered contracts, the committee has three other purposes: assessing the possible future problem of limited housing space through cooperation with university staff members, working with Residence Life to ensure that resources are available to students in their searches for off-campus housing, and advocating for students in finding the best solution to the housing problem.

"Obviously, helping the people affected right now is one of the purposes," Rhode said. "But what I think is important to consider is looking to the future ... either making sure students have the right information so they can prepare or speaking to administrators about things that can be done."

Burget said he is considering setting up Internet resources for students to share information about possible off-campus residences. The committee was recently formed, so there are no concrete resources currently provided by ARHS. "What I'd thought about was an online-forum Web site where students find information about housing off campus," Burget said. "People can ask questions about what's out there, and people can respond."

The committee will remain in place for the remainder of the school year, and while it will primarily consist of ARHS members and the six residence area governments, membership is open to any interested students.

"Hopefully, part of this committee will be outreach to students to get out information so they are aware of the resources," Rhode said. "Since we don't have those resources right now, how to access them is questionable. Hopefully, there will be information on our Web site, and we will be working hard to publicize any information available to students."