NEW YORK -- A New York University sophomore who says he spent eight months sleeping in a library basement because he couldn't afford campus housing has been moved to a free dormitory room, school officials said.
Steve Stanzak, 20, said he began spending six hours a night in the sub-basement of Bobst Library at the beginning of the academic year after he was unable to pay a $1,000 housing deposit.
He slept on four library chairs and carried vital belongings -- a laptop computer, books, clothes -- in his backpack. He kept other items, like toiletries and clothing, in storage lockers.
University officials discovered an online journal Stanzak kept about his experiences and relocated him to a free dorm room last week.
''70 percent of our students are on financial aid,'' NYU spokesman John Beckman said Tuesday. ''If they have a problem, they choose to come to talk to us, and we find a way to help them. This person chose a pretty unique solution to his issues.''
Scores of students read about Stanzak's daily adventures on his Web journal, www.homelessatnyu.com, and he became something of a campus celebrity.
''I thank everyone who helps me get through the day, and makes me realize that although I'm poor and live in a library ... that I'm learning a lot about life, and that I will make it through this,'' reads an entry dated April 15.
Stanzak, who dubbed himself ''Bobst Boy'' on the Web site, says he washed in the library's bathroom and took occasional showers at friends' apartments and dorm rooms.
He said security guards awakened him about five times in the library, twice telling him he couldn't sleep there, other times checking that he was OK and was in fact an NYU student.
''I wasn't afraid of being thrown out of the library,'' he told The New York Times for a story in Tuesday's editions. ''I could have slept in the park. My worst fear was getting kicked out of NYU. I love this school.''
Although he works four jobs, receives a $15,000 NYU scholarship and has several student loans, Stanzak said, he received no financial assistance from his divorced parents and had only enough money to cover tuition, about $31,000 a year for full-time undergraduates. Undergraduate housing costs anywhere from $7,700 to $16,600 per year, depending on the room arrangement.
Beckman said federal law prohibits university officials from discussing a student's financial aid package.
In his Web log entry for Tuesday, Stanzak said the room he was given was in the same dorm he originally was assigned to at a cost of $10,980, ''which is a huge cry from the meager prices I spend to stay sane.''
Stanzak, a creative writing major, grew up in Waterloo, N.Y., a small town in the Finger Lakes region.
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