Kandace Kreider's response to the housing contract shortage overlooked the fact that housing responsibility goes both ways ("Housing guarantees rooms for first-year students only," Feb. 9).

She commented that responsibility lies with the individual student to find their own housing, but a number of students thought they were in fact being responsible by submitting the contract on time. Now, after following the procedure correctly, they are still homeless next year. It is true that there are apartments available for students, including semester leases and sublets, but with over a 1,200 people competing for them they will quickly disappear.

Normally when people decide they want an apartment they begin to look during the fall semester, so by the time people find out if they received a housing contract the majority of apartments are already leased, leaving people without a contract in a bind. It is understandable that Penn State is having a difficult time accommodating everyone, but leaving over a 1,200 people homeless is inexcusable. There are many large state schools that do not guarantee housing for upperclassmen at all, just freshmen.

Maybe Penn State should take a lesson from them and reorganize the application process so the same thing does not happen in the future.