August 2003

Ran: The Daily Aztec - The Independent Student Newspaper of San Diego State University - Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Residence Hall
Sweet
Residence Hall

By: Melissa Berlant

As students move in to the residence halls, they have to figure out how to turn a room with bare walls and institutional furniture into a home.

Double rooms in Chapultepec, Zura and the Living/Learning Center measure about 11 feet by 14 feet, according to the San Diego State Office of Housing Administration Web site. The each come equipped with two extra-long twin beds, two desks, two dressers, bookshelves and a mini-fridge with a microwave. Each resident is also provided with a mattress pad, blanket and pillow to use. While this provides students with the bare necessities for living, student initial impressions of the residence hall rooms are not always enthusiastic.

Psychology junior Nikki Marjanovice said she thought her single room in Zura resembled a prison cell when she moved in last year. On-campus residents, however, find ways to turn these rooms into places comfortable enough to be called home.

One of the first things resident must worry about is where they are going to store all their belongings. With the stilts available in most halls, beds can be raised to 18 inches above the floor. In Cuicacalli, the beds have about 43 inches of space below them - enough room to keep the dresser underneath.

Josh Gren, Chapultepec Residence Hall Association assistant coordinator, said residents are not allowed to bring their own cooking appliances. In all Chapultepec, Zura and LLC rooms, students can only use the mini-fridge. Each suite in Cuicacalli includes a full size refrigerator and microwave for eight residents to share. Villa Alvarado apartments have fully equipped kitchens.

Students can, however, bring electric irons as long as they are not steam irons, Gren said.

"We ask that people don't bring in alcohol and drug paraphernalia - you can't decorate your room with shot glasses,: he said.

In addition, residents are not allowed to decorate the outside of their doors because some postings may be offensive to other students, Gren said. The outsides of the doors are decorated by the Resident Assistance with nametags of each room resident.

When you go inside the rooms, however, students' individualities stand out.

"Everybody kinda has their own style and they have their own image that they like to portray so everybody's room is different," than if you share with someone else. Then it's almost like all of it gets split down the middle. One side can be bright pink and the other side can be dark black."

Marjanovice said she decorated her room with darker warm colors and little lights. She brought a carpet for her floor and rearranged her furniture to make the room seem larger. Also, she brought a television, stereo and a laptop.

"I stuck to the stuff that was my style with a lot of my hobbies and interests," Marjanovice said. "I had a whole wall that had nothing but motorcycles on it. I had a wall that had things my friends gave me. The back wall was all my musicians and my pin-ups because I like classic pin-ups."

Marjanovice said she would tell incoming residents to pack like a boy scout. She said residents can try to bring as much as they want, but the rooms aren't that big. Also, many students end up buying a lot more things for their rooms at Target and IKEA after they move in.

Tamara Scrivner, an incoming music education freshman, said she didn't need to buy much for her room in Chapultepec. She will use her sister's bedding and a;ready has collected a lot of storage items. She is bringing lots of books and photo albums, but she doesn't plan to put her pictures up on the wall because they are private.

She said her dad is very protective of her belongings and he wants to get Scrivner a safe to put her cameras and laptop in.

"I'm kind of apprehensive because I just went to a camp where I had to live in the dorms and I just realized 'Oh my god, this is what I'm going to be living in," Scrivner said. "It's really small and coming back to this littler room ever day - there's no kitchen, no living room, no family. It's just something I'll have to get used to, I guess."

Another music educAtion freshman, Heather Luck, will live on Olmeca in the LLC. She estimated that she spent about $200 on items for her room. She enjoyed shopping for her residence hall room.

Luck said she didn't bring any storage because she had a small room at home and therefore doesn't have a lot of stuff.

She talked to her roommate ahead of time and found out that their room will no match at all. Luck's roommate is bringing the TV for the room and they will both have computers.

Economics sophomore Spencer Dale lived in a Zura double last year will move into a Zura single this year. To make his room feel more like home, he brought a plant and a goldfish.

Dale also brought a rug, stereo and DVD player. He said he had a lot of posters, including movie posters, He had a poster of The Godfather, which he said is a requirement.

He said he's kind of a neat freak and had one of the cleanest rooms on the floor. He said incoming residents should get ready to do laundry and to try to keep their room a little clean. That way the can avoid having a bad smelling room and life will be much easier for them when it is time to move out.

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