INDIANA, Pa. -- Chris DeLeo pays handsomely to live in a warm, fully furnished dorm room at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Caleb Finegan, a history professor at IUP, spreads straw on the ground where students from the Alternative Spring Break Program are staying in cardboard boxes until Friday. Click photo for larger image.

Yet, three nights this week, he will sleep in a cardboard box insulated with newspaper and held together with packing tape.

He will get warmth from a burn barrel about 10 feet from his shelter and from his own body heat.

He'll wear two pairs of pants, three shirts, two pairs of socks and big thick hunting boots. And he'll probably only sleep for a few hours.

DeLeo is one of about a dozen students who will taste the experience of being homeless this week as they try to raise awareness and money for the Alternative Spring Break program, in which students do volunteer work during spring vacation.

The students have set up a homeless camp on campus between McElhaney and Keith halls. The camp, which now has four cardboard structures, a picnic table and a big silver trash can to collect cash donations, is staffed by student volunteers 24 hours a day. The students moved into camp Monday and will remain through Friday.

While most participants are doing hour-long rotations during the day, several will also spend nights in the subfreezing cold.

DeLeo, a freshman math major, thinks spending three nights in a box will be fun. For his first night, he and friends talked and listened as one of the students played a guitar. DeLeo and another student went to sleep about 3 a.m. yesterday and woke up at 7.

After that, he went back to his dorm room and took a two-hour nap.

DeLeo said he believes students who stay overnight get a better sense of what homeless people endure.

Even then, though, they get to return to their comforters and pillows and showers.

Kristen Vennare, 22, of Bethel Park, a member of the Alternative Spring Break program, tried to spend the night at the site last year. She remembers being very cold and uncomfortable. In the middle of the night, when she thought her nose was running, Vennare discovered it was bleeding.

At 4 a.m., she walked back to her home and took the hottest shower of her life.

"I cried because I thought I was such a loser," she said, while staffing the site for an hour between classes yesterday. "I'm supposed to be this activist, and I couldn't even be pseudo-homeless."

The idea for the fund-raiser came from Caleb Finegan , a history professor at IUP and faculty adviser for Alternative Spring Break. At first, he suggested the students camp out overnight in tents and sleeping bags. When he called the school's outing club adviser to borrow the equipment, that professor suggested the cardboard shelters.

"If you really want to evoke the plight of the homeless, maybe this would be a better alternative," said Whit Watts, a professor of geography and regional planning.

This year, Watts worked the idea into a class project. His students had four days to produce schematic drawings of their shelters and then eight hours for construction. The only materials they could use were cardboard, newspaper, packing tape and twine -- things that would be readily available to a homeless person.

"Once you get it off the ground and shield the wind, 80 percent of the battle is licked," Watts said.

Eight cardboard shelters were built as part of the class, and the best four were selected for the spring break program fund-raiser.

Jason Kambitsis, a junior from Mt. Lebanon, built a structure that was 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It was not selected by the students sleeping outside because they thought it wouldn't be good for retaining body heat. But Kambitsis designed it with the needs of a real homeless person in mind.

He and other students spent time in Pittsburgh talking to homeless people last month to find out what they valued in a shelter. One of the most important things they learned was having room to store belongings.

One man who slept in a doorway on Liberty Avenue said he wanted to be able to sit upright to read and keep his valuables protected.

In addition to collecting donations at the homeless camp, the students also raise funds through pledges and collect donated clothing and toiletries for homeless people.

Last year, the group raised $3,000, which paid for 25 students to go to three places to do volunteer work. This year, 27 students will split into two groups -- heading to New York City and Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., near Chattanooga.

In New York, 15 students will work in soup kitchens, pass out clothing to homeless people and volunteer in an elementary school. In Tennessee, the students will help clear part of the Cumberland Trail, which will eventually stretch from Georgia to Kentucky.

Maryann Germain, a 22-year-old graduate student studying history, is one of the student organizers of the New York City trip.

"You see the importance and the difference that it makes in their lives," she said of the homeless people they help. "It's a life-changing experience to hear why they're there."