As students move into the university apartments this fall, furniture may not be in the picture.

And some say a lack of furniture may be especially hard on international students.

University Housing is slowly implementing its furniture phase-out plan — designed to eliminate furniture it used to provide in University Apartments — to be completed by 2008.

"More tenants are starting to provide their own furniture, so the need for our furniture has decreased," said Karen Corley, associate director of University Housing. The result is a warehouse full of desks, chairs, beds and tables that cost the university approximately $28,000 a year in rental fees to store.

The phase-out plan will affect Cherry Lane Apartments and Spartan Village, the two university apartment complexes that are currently in use.

Right now, 40 percent of the university apartments are unfurnished, leaving the rest partially or fully furnished, Corley said.

But many international students say furniture-hunting can be a difficult task, especially for those who are only staying a short while.

Director of the Office for International Students and Scholars Peter Briggs said the furniture phaseout has already affected some international visitors.

"We are aware of at least a half a dozen families who have slept (in) the university apartments on the floor (their first night)," Briggs said, adding that he wondered if that would be acceptable to an American visiting Germany or China.

"We've certainly had discussions with (University Housing), and they have asked if we get complaints, to refer the complaints to them," he said.

Corley said the university is aware of the problem, and discussion has shifted to how the university can help international students find furniture, especially those who are staying for one year or less.

"We presently have an option for students to purchase or rent-to-own through a furniture company," she said. She added that if an international student — or any student — requests furniture for his or her apartment, they will accommodate the request based on what's available.

Graduate student Lilian Kirimi said she didn't know what she would have done if her apartment had been unfurnished when her family arrived from Kenya. Kirimi moved to Cherry Lane Apartments four years ago before the phase-out plan was in effect.

"You don't know where to get it, you don't have anything in the house, (and) you don't know anyone," she said, "I think for international students, when you get here it's shocking to get an empty apartment."

Newcomer Zhengmin Wen, a visiting scholar from China, moved into Cherry Lane Apartments three weeks ago and found he lacked a few items.

"I moved into here, I found there was (not enough) furniture, so I reported it," Wen said. "Later they moved (in) other furniture."

Yet some furniture is better than no furniture, a situation Wen said he encountered while talking to some Spartan Village residents.

"Some international students told me, 'Why there is no furniture?'" he said. "(The student) said his apartment is empty, so he had to buy furniture."