The Office of Residence Life is offering a special measure to help ease the financial problems some Asian students are experiencing, because of the currency crisis in their homelands. Students affected by the crisis are able to get out of their one-year contract to live in the dorms, said Toni Greenslade, assistant director of Residence Life for housing assignment.Usually, if students leave a residence hall before their contract with the housing office expires, they have to pay a penalty of $750, Greenslade said. However, considering the drastic economic change in Asia, the housing office will not charge the penalty to those Asian students affected by the change.The special measure was enacted this quarter and about 20 students have already left their dorms, Greenslade said.Eun-Ha Kim, a junior from Korea majoring in computer information science, was one of the first students who moved out.”I wanted to save money as much as possible,” Kim said.Since Kim came to Ohio State in August, the Korean won has declined 1.5 times to the dollar.Kim used to pay about $450 per month for a double room in Drackett Tower without a meal plan, she said.She moved out of the dorm at the beginning of this quarter. She now shares a two-bedroom apartment on Lane Avenue with her Korean friend, who left the Blackburn House.Each pays $330 monthly, which includes utilities, she said.”Probably I will be saving $400 to $500 per quarter,” Kim said.Kim is also applying for a part-time job at a computer lab for next quarter to support her stay at OSU, she said.Amelia Hapsari, a freshman from Indonesia majoring in communications, applied last Monday to leave the Blackburn House after this quarter.Before coming to the United States, Hapsari applied to live in the Blackburn House because she wanted to “experience an American dormitory life,” Hapsari said.Hapsari is paying about $560 per month for a four-person room with a weekly ten-meal plan and she is enjoying her dormitory life by making many friends. The economic situation in Indonesia has not improved since the economy collapsed several months ago, and every expense is becoming a burden for Hapsari.Since she came to OSU last September, the value of Indonesian rupiah dropped about one-third of what it was.Although Hapsari has been working part-time on campus since last quarter, she still had to come up with other ways of saving money, she said.She heard about the no-penalty deal through her friend and decided to leave the dorm, she said.”I like living in a dorm because I have lots of friends, it’s near campus and I can eat regularly,” Hapsari said. “But for me, it became very expensive to stay.”She will be paying about $260 per month for a two-bedroom apartment on Norwich Avenue by sharing with another Indonesian student next quarter, she said.”It’s hard for my parents to afford my stay here, so I have to save as much as I can,” Hapsari said.Asian students affected by the crisis who wish to leave their residence halls have two choices. They can contact the Office of International Education or send a letter to the Office of Housing Contracts and Assignments by the end of this quarter, Greenslade said.In the letter, students should include the details of how their financial situations are affected by the currency crisis, she said.