Students living in residence halls will have to be a little quicker returning keys loaned from the commons desk beginning on Monday.

The 48-hour loaner keys that students have been able to borrow until this point will be replaced by two-hour lockout keys, complete with tags identifying them as borrowed keys.

Sean Moeller, assistant director of conference and desk services, said the intent of the new system is to increase the safety of Penn State housing.

"We're putting the students more at risk by having a key out for 48 hours," he said.

Moeller said he wasn't aware of any safety incidents that have been tracked directly back to the 48-hour keys, but that wasn't the main concern of the committee that came up with the solution.

"We're trying to be proactive right now," he said. "We don't want to wait until something happens."

The Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS) voted to support the program. Mark Taticchi, ARHS president, said the association agreed the two-hour key would increase security. Taticchi added that another concern was the practice of students taking out a loaner key for the weekend to lend to a visiting friend.

Moeller said the committee that developed the policy was aware of that practice but did not target it directly.

"That's not the reason we're doing it," he said. "We just want to increase safety."

During the remainder of this semester, students will only receive a warning if they do not return the key within the two-hour timeframe. Housing will still change the locks on the door -- called a core change -- if a student fails to return the key within the 48-hour period. The student who took out the key is responsible for the cost of a core change.

After this semester, Moeller said Housing would look at the results from the program and make any necessary changes. The current timeline is to implement the program fully during the second summer session.

Taticchi said ARHS would also give its input into the program after the trial this semester.

He said its main concern would be whether or not two hours is a long enough period.

Daniel Coleman (junior-psychology) said he was locked out of his room last year, and that two hours provided "plenty of time" to get back in.

However, Donna Zimmerman, a full-time employee at the Redifer Commons desk, said most students had trouble with the current deadline.

"A lot of them, we're lucky if we get them back in 48 hours," she said. "There's very few that come back within the first two hours."

Moeller said exceptions could be made to the two-hour limit. He said one such situation could be if a student left his or her key at home and needed it mailed to them.

"There's always going to be extenuating circumstances, and we're going to work with students on that," he said.