Colleges across the country are spending more and more money on making students' lives more comfortable, blurring the line between necessity and luxury.
The East Wheelock cluster, which cost $100,000 per bed to build in the late 1990s and features an elevator in the newest dorm, McCulloch, is often cited as an example of excessive and unnecessary spending on Dartmouth's part.
However, schools everywhere, including ones facing more serious budget crises than Dartmouth, are giving their students amenities that those here do not even dream of.
While Dartmouth constructed the Treehouses to deal with a higher than expected yield for the Class of 2005, Boston University chose a slightly different solution for a similar problem.
Last year, hundreds of students were housed for a term in the Hyatt Regency and the Radisson, while this year, a smaller number will stay in the recently opened Hotel Commonwealth.
Although the students have standard dorm furniture, they still enjoy the other perks that come with living in a hotel, including marble bathrooms and even room service, albeit at an extra cost to students.
These frills come at a price, however, with the downturn in the economy causing budget crunches everywhere.
While Dartmouth has implemented cuts in all areas, most colleges would not even contemplate making unpopular decisions like the swimming team cut.
Rutgers University, for example, completely revamped its basketball team's locker room a few years ago, with a cushy lounge, leather couches and multiple televisions, albeit in more economically sound times.
At the same time, however, Rutgers has been ranked near the top in the "Dorms Like Dungeons" category in the rankings compiled by the Princeton Review, and there are perennial complaints from students about overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated buildings.
Yale, too, kept delaying long-needed renovations to its dorms until a piece of plaster collapsed from the ceiling in one if its dining halls in 1996. Since then, it has commenced major renovations, with a complete overhaul of one residential college every year.
Dartmouth is also making significant improvements to the River apartments this year, after years of neglect.
And while the construction of the dorms on Maynard Street has been postponed due to budget cuts, Associate Director of Facilities Planning Jack Wilson said in a previous interview that they will be modeled on the East Wheelock cluster.
While not everyone sees some of the amenities in East Wheelock as necessary, the overall quality of dorms in general at Dartmouth is one of the factors due to which Dartmouth is consistently ranked highly in quality of life.
"Dartmouth is definitely increasing expenditures for student activities and services," former College Treasurer Win Johnson said in 2001, adding that on average, the College has allocated $3 million in additional funds per year to pay for improvements like these in student services.
"Both academic and student life expenditures are being considered [equally]," Johnson said. "The student experience is not just [either] academics or services."
The growing obsession of high-school students with rankings is part of the reason for these spending binges by colleges.
Colleges use their new facilities to lure prospective students, which allows them to decrease their admissions rates, increase their yields, and consequently move up in rankings.
For example, after New York University completed a $2 billion construction project, its applications soared.
The number of applicants in 2001 was three times of that in 1991.
Not all students, however, are happy with these lavish homes away from home. Most recent graduates simply do not earn enough to maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed at college, and the reality check is rarely pleasant.
