Not your father's college dorm, or even yours

What's wrong with communal life?
“Students and school employees are living in increasing luxury while taxpayers are getting soaked,” says Neal McCluskey, a policy analyst for the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Still others think there’s something to be said for basic communal living, especially for underclassmen.

“The traditional college dormitory with two students to a room and a bathroom and common room down the hall is a pretty good way of getting students out of their rooms and away from their computers,” says Tom Kepple, president of Juniata College, a liberal arts school in Huntingdon, Pa. “In this environment, it’s pretty hard to avoid getting to know your fellow students and how to live in a community.”

Some students agree. “It’s a crash course in conflict resolution,” says Renita Young, a 20-year-old senior at DePaul who started off in a cramped dorm and only recently moved to Loft-Right. She feels she’s earned the perk.

Next: ‘Club Med for students’
That said, many residents in her building are freshmen and sophomores — which Bronstein, the developer, takes as a sign of increasing demand. Now he’s ready to move on to his next project: a “Club Med for students” at Illinois State University that will have outdoor volleyball and hot tubs, as well as plasma TVs in every unit.

“The cat’s out of the bag,” he says. “Nobody’s going to build a new building with community bathrooms. It just won’t happen.”

Sarah English, director of housing and residential life at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., also believes universities have no choice but to upgrade housing. Her school recently added upscale townhouses for students.

But even she drew the line when she heard officials at some colleges were replacing standard-issue twin mattresses — long a rite of passage in dorm life — with full-sized beds.

Her thought on that: “Are you kidding me?”

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