COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Students who have been sleeping in tents this week at the University of Maryland took their protest to the school's Board of Regents on Friday.

The students argue that the university needs to have additional affordable housing on and near campus.

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Earlier this month, school officials announced that hundreds of upcoming juniors and seniors will be kicked out of their dorms next school year because of a housing shortage.

"It was very cold this week. It was 40 or 30 degrees out and raining all week," said student Joe Koehler who participated in the camp out.

But when asked whether his camping experience was worth it, Koehler responded, "Definitely. It was a lot of fun."

Students said the housing shortage will effect about 642 of their classmates -- most of them juniors. They said the university and Board of Regents are not doing enough to provide housing for them.

"We've had long waiting lists, student lounges converted to dorm rooms and doubles converted to triples," said student body President Emma Simson.

Simson told the board that housing in College Park is scarce and expensive during Friday's meeting in Solomon's Island.

"We want to see affordable housing that's convenient to the university, whether it's on or off the university, we just want to see it happen," said Simson.

University officials said landlords have agreed to reserve off-campus units for 175 students and a housing fair is being held later this month to make sure displaced students will have a place to live.

"The tent city has been highly effective in calling attention to the problem. We love our students to be active on the campus. It's quite clever. In fact, we actually rented the tents to them from the campus," said Linda Clement, vice president of student affairs.

While the tents were coming down, students said their spirits are high and they plan to keep on the pressure for more housing in the years to come.

The Board of Regents said that due to budget constraints, it wants the university to find private developers to build student housing. University officials said thousands of new units are in the works in College Park but it will could take years before they'll be ready for students to move into them.