Classes have begun and once again some NIU students are temporarily in various residence hall lounges and area hotels while NIU Housing Services searches for a place for them to live permanently.

Approximately 160 students currently are in temporary housing because of lack of space in the residence halls. Most of these students are residing in Lincoln and Douglas Hall lounges, the Holmes Student Center, and local hotels.

NIU Housing Director Carl Jardine said most of these students are in temporary housing because they didn’t register for housing early enough.

“If students apply prior to the end of February, there is a 90 to 100 percent chance they will receive a permanent place in the residence halls,” Jardine said.

Sophomore Ryan Pottinger, who waited too long to apply for housing, was planning on getting an apartment this semester with a friend. However, when things did not work out, he found himself in temporary housing at a local hotel.

The Housing Services Office informed him yesterday he would be able to get a room in Stevenson Hall North. He said the worst part of the situation was waiting and not knowing when he would get a permanent place to live.

Last year some of the “temporary housing” students did not receive permanent housing until after the fall semester. Jardine said although he hopes this delay does not occur this year, chances are it might happen again.

Jardine said it will be easier to know how long these students will be in temporary housing after Labor Day, when a complete head-count is conducted of the present residence hall residents.