As a result of both a “technical anomaly” and a “large volume of questions from students,” the Department of Housing and Residence Life has extended the deadline for online apartment sign-ups until today at 5 p.m., said Director of Housing Argyle Wade.

“We felt that it was best to provide additional time for students who had applied time to go back and check their assignments again and for those who had questions to have them answered before their final submission,” Wade said.

One particular glitch in the system did not save the preference of a Marchetti two- bedroom apartment for some students.

Wade explained that a small piece of code was inserted by Information Technology Services, the creators of the program, after the system was tested. The error was not found until the screens were available. He assured that all of the choices have now been tested for both the apartments and the residence halls.

Mary Elizabeth Curtice, Residence Hall Association president, worked with residence life to develop and test the system. She said, “It is expected that there will be kinks in the system the first time around.”

Student Government Association Residential Affairs Committee Chairman Nick Sarcone fears students do not realize that the technical glitches may have resulted because their selections were not made correctly. “I don’t think people have any idea that there is a problem with the Marchetti choices,” Sarcone said. He encourages all students to double check their applications on WebStar.

Wade noted that 70 students or groups of students came to the residence life office Monday with questions. He added that many students also called or e-mailed the office.

“The majority of the questions involved explaining to students how to properly use the online system,” Wade said.

Students were informed of the deadline extension in an all-campus e-mail. All students were encouraged to recheck the information they already submitted.

After 5 tonight, residence life will run the reports to check for students currently living in the apartments but who have not completed any form at all to stay or leave.

“In addition, we will run reports that will tell us if there are problems with the applications,” Wade said. “If we find that there are problems we will contact those individuals who will have a period of time to respond to use to make necessary corrections.”

Students who do not get apartment assignments will receive notification during the week of March 25-29.

Tentative apartment assignments will be sent via e-mail to applicable students.

So far, about 900 to 1000 students have submitted apartment applications.

Overall, Wade believes the system is a success, but that success will probably not be fully realized until next year.

“The biggest challenges we face now-instructions on how to use the system and technical issues-won’t be as large next year as we will have made the necessary corrections,” Wade said.

In the future, Curtice would like to see more communication from residence life to the students informing them of the process more clearly.

She added that the timing this year unfortunately coincided with midterm exams.

Sarcone said that much of his personal confusion came from several different actions required after the first application was completed, such as confirming roommate choices. He would suggest the entire application be consolidated to one Web screen to avoid confusion.

Both Curtice and Sarcone have heard little feedback about the system. Sarcone believes this means that for most students the transition to online applications is a natural progression.