From the article:
Mini-double receives a collapsble desk.
Better invest in more tutors for Freshman Composition. Maybe the University of Chicago should consider this, too, though, it seems, that ship has sailed.
I aspire to embody this post's title in one respect, and am confident I embody it in another: Murphy beds seem like a good idea to me. If nothing else, having one would keep me from littering my bed with unfolded laundry and other miscellaneous junk (which, when bedtime actually arrives, inevitably gets pushed onto the floor).
Do you have a problem with commas?
I noted the missing letter, but forgot to include mention of it.
"The creative means on which those who settle settled" is a bit exaggerated, no? We're talking about one lone room installed with such a bed.
This Murphy Bed, unlike most of 'em, seems to be fairly solid. I vote "sure, why the hell not?".
Do you have a problem with commas?
Sure, I'm the one with the problem.
"The creative means on which those who settle settled" is a bit exaggerated, no?
It has a nicely Hegelian ring to it -- as though it should go, "The creative means on which those who settle settled becomes the means of unsettled resettling by which the expropriators are expropriated." Or maybe as if Spinoza had written it: settle settleans, settee settleata.
Sure, I'm the one with the problem.
I obviously don't have a problem with them. I love 'em. Some of my favorite punctuation marks. Always willing to give them remunerative employ.
settee settleata
Are you suggesting students be forced to sleep on sofas?
Are you suggesting students be forced to sleep on sofas?
IME students sleeping on sofas is very much natura naturans.
When C first went to university, to Bournemouth (for some reason), they hadn't finished some refurbishment or other, and he was put into a room in a B&B. With 5 complete strangers. Two of whom had to share a double bed. He came home 2 days later, retook an A level, and went to Salford the next year, where he had a flat in a tower block with a view of Strangeways (which was definitely an asset during the riots).
So it's a bad thing to figure out how to get by with less space?
Or maybe as if Spinoza had written it: settle settleans, settee settleata.
Heart this, so, so much. Heart Gonerill, too! (I had the passage described to me once as 'nature naturing' and 'nature natured', and though you might not think that cleared things up, it did!)
At my old university there were sinks and medicine cabinets in the study lounges. Just in case enrollment grew. We also had modular furniture, which were great for saving space but not so great for crawling into bed at 2am because one had to go up a ladder.
My grandfather's apartment has a Murphy bed, along with a Murphy dining room table and Murphy card table. It's cute but only because the place is big enough it doesn't need them.
Stanford has a dorm named Ujamaa? Buncha hippies, you lot.
Stanford has a dorm named Ujamaa? Buncha hippies, you lot.
Stanford has amusingly named Residences to suit all tastes, including ones called Narnia, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, Kairos, Synergy and Terra. The one I walk by on my way back to my bedsit has a sign outside saying "Welcome to Hogwarts."
Well I guess life on the farm isn't laid back, after all.
http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/john_denver_lyrics_1622/the_essential_john_denver
Next up: hammocks for graduate students (24 inches width per man); to be stowed by 0600, when all faculty members are to start holystoning the floor of the seminar rooms...
Sprawl forever!
You can take the boy out of Irvine...
Stanford has a dorm named Ujamaa?
Cornell has one too.
I'd be pretty pissed off I'd bought one of those beds for $8 million, before they were offered at a steep discount.
I'd be pretty pissed off I'd bought one of those beds for $8 million, before they were offered at a steep discount.
Under what circumstances?
This seems to simplify the hookup. You walk back into your room and if you don't immediately pull down your bed, you've kind of missed your opportunity.
You walk back into your room and if you don't immediately pull down your bed your bed isn't already pulled down, you've kind of missed your opportunity.
23: Ohhhhhh, look who's Mr. Expert all of a sudden...
I've always been an expert on missed opportunities.
21: That's a rather extreme instance of little bitchitude, w-lfs-n. If I'd bought, obvs.
If squirrels take up too much space, chipmunks (which are, in fact, a member of the family Sciuridae) are even more compact than humpbacked squirrels.
This is an even better dorm pet. It can hear the R.A. coming from a long way off, and it can hide your contraband.
If long-eared jerboas were pets, PK would pee his pants with joy.
31: so for the best that they aren't, in that case?
PK would pee his pants with joy.
What's he peeing his pants with now?
He's peeing ogged's pants with love.
He was put into a room in a B&B. With 5 complete strangers. Two of whom had to share a double bed.
But that would be a standard housing situation at American universities, I believe.
re: 33
He's peeing his pants with pee, obviously.
Actually he no longer pees his pants. But since his teacher got some mice for the classroom, and two of the three died of pneumonia despite my heroic efforts with the twice-daily antibiotics, and I make a point of getting the one remaining mouse out of its cage every afternoon and letting it climb around on my shoulders and in my hair, I pretty much come home with mouse pee in my hair every day.
Actually he no longer pees his pants.
I think everyone knows that. A friend of mine has meerkats. They are also, I suspect, OK-pees-his-pants sorts of pets.
36, 37 You don't have 6 to a room, surely! I still can't really believe they make you share a room at all. Some of the rooms at my college were doubles, but they had huge living rooms and two separate bedrooms.
Yes. Sprawl forever!
I think you mean Sproul.
Also, Stanford has dorms for grad students. Small rooms: twin bed, wardrobe, sink washbasin in the room, shared bathrooms/showers down the hall. In accordance with the donor's will, priority in one building is given to law students; in the other, to engineers.
re: 42
At Glasgow there was, I think, one or maybe two halls of residence where about 20% of the rooms were twin rooms. They were fairly big rooms but they were shared.
I don't know exact numbers but I'd be surprised if more than a few dozen rooms out of several thousand were shared.
When you applied for accomodation, though, you could just write on the form that you weren't prepared to take a double. I always assumed the people who took the doubles were a bit odd. Or didn't particularly mind having sex with other people in the room.
42: I was joking, but there's an element of truth to it. Berkeley will happily charge you $1,000 a month for a triple room.
re: 46
!!!
That's expensive to say the least. Expensive to my British eyes -- and hence used to things being more expensive in the UK -- which means REALLY expensive.
Or didn't particularly mind having sex with other people in the room.
More or less essential (absent holes in the wall) isn't it?
46: Berkeley is charging about four times as much as I paid for my set (sitting room plus bedroom, neither shared) plus meals at Oxbridge. Clearly US students are very rich.
re: 48
They are charging significantly more than you'd pay now, in Oxford, afaik.
Certainly that's quite a bit more than the going rate for a nice room in a decent shared private house.
When I first started here I rented a house from the University. Semi-detached, two-bed for less than that.
Clearly US students are very rich.
US students are cash cows.
University dorm accomodation (and meal plans) seems to be thought of as a revenue source rather than a service for the students; both schools I went to, living on campus in a shared room eating cafeteria food would have been way more expensive than living off campus and cooking for myself (which is what I did three years out of four). I think it's a way to sneak in what are effectively tuition hikes inconspicuously.
My office is located in an old women's dorm. It is very cute. There is a tiny closet, a little desk built into the wall, and storage shelving near the ceiling.
re: 51
It's more expensive here, too. Or at least it was when I lived in student accomodation in Glasgow. But the difference wasn't high.
Looking at the Oxford website, housing for students is about 100 per week if residing in college owned accommodation. That's broadly in-line with renting a room in a private shared house or flat. You could maybe pay a bit more or a bit less. Food here is pretty cheap if eating in college. Certainly cheaper than even cheap cafés or fast food places.
It varies a bit from college to college, though. Some subsidise costs a fair bit for their students.
50: US students are cash cows.
That certainly became evident when my son went off to Big State U. Less student more targeted consumer with well-known demographics and financial status.
It varies a bit from college to college, though.
A friend of mine claims that while he was there Tr/nity college moved to do away with housing costs for their students entirely (probably wasn't worth the bother off collecting for them) but the other colleges put up a fuss.
Clearly US students are very rich.
In the US university has become a very efficient demographic transfer of money from young to younger middle aged people to investors. I mean this empirically not judgementally, just that once people have accepted the idea they'll have a five figure debt load from college, paying for housing fits right in.
Also, the Bay area is expensive to live it. Compare London prices, not Oxbridge.
55: Trinity College at Cambridge or Oxford? The former at least has a large enough endowment that it might be able to manage without the fees. But we probably paid about £2000 a year (a bit under £700 per term for an average room) for housing. Multiply that by the 1000ish undergrads at Trinity College, and you're talking about a sizable income stream drying up.
And yes, since Trinity is far richer and especially more liquid than most of the other colleges, it would've been a huge burden for any of them to try and compete with the housing situation. They've got enough of an edge already.
Also, the Bay area is expensive to live it. Compare London prices, not Oxbridge.
To all intents and purposes Oxford prices are London prices.* We've been recently thinking about moving and been checking out prices quite a bit.
* the top end is higher in London, obviously, but for entry-to-above-entry-level rental prices, the difference isn't massive.
58: Ah, ok, my impression was mistaken.
55: Yes, sorry I should have specified --- Cambridge. I was joking about the `can't be bothered' because of the size of their endowment. I assume the proposal was meant for competitive reasons. That would be very painful for some of the other colleges to begin to match. In any case, it didn't happen, but apparently it was on the table for a while.
59: Yeah... And I also realized after typing my 57 that Trinity probably spends about half as much as their total housing collection from undergrads on just the one May Ball party at the end of the year.
re: 59
You'd generally be right, though. Oxford and a few other towns within commuting distance of London approach London prices at the entry level, i.e. for flats that aren't totally shitty and aren't hours away from where you work. But most places outside of the SE of England rents are lower.
61: I spend enough time there to have a vague clue, but not enough to have the specifics, I think.
I was joking about the `can't be bothered' because of the size of their endowment. I assume the proposal was meant for competitive reasons. That would be very painful for some of the other colleges to begin to match. In any case, it didn't happen, but apparently it was on the table for a while.
So many potential apostropher setup lines, so little time.
re: 62
FWIW, the prices start similar but do begin to diverge as you go up the way. I have friends who were paying a couple of thousand pounds a month for a rented flat in West London. I don't know anyone who pays that much in Oxford.