A Lesson in Ingenuity 101

A New York University sophomore who says he spent eight months sleeping in a library basement because he couldn’t afford campus housing now has a free dorm room, school officials said Tuesday.

Steve Stanzak, 20, said he began spending six hours a night in the sub-basement of Bobst Library at the start 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 clothing, in lockers.

University officials discovered an online journal Stanzak kept about his experiences and relocated him to a free dorm room last week.

Scores of students read about Stanzak’s daily adventures on his Web journal, and he became something of a campus celebrity.

Stanzak, who dubbed himself “Bobst Boy” on the website, says he washed in a library bathroom and took occasional showers at friends’ apartments and rooms.

Although he works several jobs, has an NYU scholarship and student loans, Stanzak said, he receives no funds from his divorced parents and had only enough money to cover tuition, about $31,000 a year.