By Mali R. Schantz-Feld

Back in the good old days, students packed their transistor radios, promised to call their fretful parents, and embarked upon their college adventures. Most often, this meant crowded dorms with community bathrooms and pay phones in the lobby. Today, however, students leave home in search of more than academic fulfillment. They also seek housing amenities that make campus living more comfortable and convenient.

Design firms are providing new features to appeal to those expectations. “The single room that housed one or two students on a floor with a common washroom and shower is long gone,” says David Damon, Senior Associate with Sasaki Associates, Inc., in Boston. “Replacing the old dorm room is an extension of the life they are accustomed to at home: a suite with multiple bedrooms, a common living room, a kitchen, and at least one washroom and shower — sometimes two.”

Damon says that student prerequisites often include privacy in the room and bathroom, space for friends to visit, and plenty of storage. “Most of all, they just want an environment that fosters community rather than a straightforward accommodation of human storage,” he says.

The demand for innovation continues beyond the dorm room. “In addition to the suite amenities, the residence hall in general must accommodate a variety of common spaces, ranging from open lounges, study areas, meeting rooms, game rooms, and fitness rooms,” Damon says. “If you had this type environment at home, you should expect it at college.”

One example of the new minimal standard for student housing is at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Jeff Ritchie, Project Manager at Parsons Electric LLC, recalls wiring an entire wing of the new L-shaped student residence for kitchens, each outfitted with a stove, refrigerator, and microwave.

Online anytime, anywhere

Convenient communication through phone and Internet hookups is also an imperative. “It is a given that anything built on campuses will be wireless or at least equipped with easy Internet access. Students will access information anytime, anywhere,” Damon says.

Data cabling was a primary concern for the sophomore dorm project at Bethel University completed a year ago in Arden Hills, Minnesota. Dorm-room phone cabling was once the focus. “We now use basic cable for voice (Category 3) and the best cable possible (Category 6) for data communications,” says Colleen Moravek, Account Manager for Parsons Technologies. She says that while Category 3 provides basic, economical service, Category 6 cable was the highest-end product available at the time.

Increasing cell phone use also plays a large role in the communications mix. “Some students don’t even plug in their dorm room phones,” Moravek says, adding that each room now facilitates Internet research, online classes, and various entertainment options. Fiber-optic cable connects the dorm to the main campus for voice and data communications.

“Wireless access points in the dorm allow students to also function in study spaces away from their rooms,” Moravek says. “They can wander around the building and never have to plug in.”

In future years, dorms promise even more. “It wouldn’t surprise me if some day there wasn’t a phone cable in the dorm at all,” says Moravek. “If you use voice over IP, you won’t need a secondary voice cable.” The Bethel campus chose to keep the basic analog phone technology.

Refitting older structures

Updating technology requires adaptations to existing infrastructure. “It is interesting that the types of spaces that students demand have changed, but the construction typology has not,” Damon says. Residence halls for the most part are precast slab-formed structures built with masonry-walls. “The paradigm shift has been in the locations of interior partitions and the integration of the telecommunications infrastructure,” he says.

The block exterior walls and precast floors that make these buildings safer from fire present challenges. “With the exposed concrete, we had nowhere to run the conduit,” says Julie Steinberg, Parsons Project Manager for Bethel. “The only way is to run a tube within that structure.” Close communication with the other trades enables craftspersons running the wires and cable to coordinate with those installing the power, phone, and data receptacles.

Just like home

Student housing technology can provide safety as well as comfort. At Bethel, Parsons personnel installed empty conduit systems into which the security company ran links for state-of-the-art security systems. At the Merchant Marine Academy-Palmer Hall project in Kingsport, New York, Parsons Project Manager Perry Thompson faced the challenges of upgrading the school’s antiquated electrical equipment.

Parsons replaced the generator with a new Cummins 300-KW generator, upgrading the emergency generator system, the fire alarm system, and the low-voltage voice and data infrastructure. “We basically demolished the internal infrastructure and installed a new backbone that brought everything up to safety code,” Thompson says. “Installation of ground-fault protection provided a more reliable, safer means to shut down power in an overload situation.”

Renovating an existing building is time consuming. “We had to drill a lot of holes in the 8,000-PSI concrete structure to get our conduit in place,” Thompson says. “We were working in a crawl space while routing the conduits. We had to go underground to tie into the loop on the base, tap into and refeed, and then tie it into the bigger building. Since the barracks are all connected, we had to keep the other two buildings running while we were doing all this.”

The new systems allow colleges to save money on electrical generation, while students enjoy the amenities and safety of home. “The simple shift in the design of interior partitions, the creation of suites that have a sense of place, and the ability to provide variety is the key to providing for the student’s needs,” Damon says. “As each student generation develops its own identity, today’s buildings must have the flexibility to adapt to tomorrow’s students.”