Better dorms and gardens: UNLV students make the most of limited space

Kimberley McGee

Thursday, March 15, 2001 | 9:12 a.m.

Paul Luckenbill's UNLV dorm room is decorated in early junior year: Barrels of snack food double as shelving. An unmade bed is littered with schoolbooks, and posters hang on the cinder-block walls.

It's typical decor of a college student. But what has surprised residence hall officers and professional decorators are additions to most dorm rooms in recent years of sophisticated technology and massive amounts of personal items.

Snaking behind Luckenbill's small desk, for example, are jumbled wires and plugs that lead to his makeshift electronics center.

"I use it for entertainment mostly, but the mini-disc (player) and laptop I have to have for school," said the theater major and sound technician for UNLV's theater department.

In one corner of his room he has neatly stacked a CD player, AM-FM stereo, a mini-CD player (for top-quality sound), a Nintendo 64 for late-night gaming, a VCR, a 27-inch television and a laptop computer with a printer.

Luckenbill is among a growing number of college students who try to cram as much high-tech equipment, furniture and mementos from home into tiny dorm rooms.

Gary Schwarzmueller, executive director of the Association of College and University Housing Officers in Columbus, Ohio, said students are packing a lot more than a duffel bag and stereo before setting off on their college adventures.

"The amount of stuff that's out there, that they bring from home, has exploded, especially electronics," Schwarzmueller said.

Stereos were the biggest electronic concern 25 years ago, he said. That's child's play compared to the electronic toys students require and acquire over the course of their college career these days.

Power capabilities in dorm rooms are consistently updated to meet the technological needs of students such as Luckenbill, Schwarzmueller said.

"Ten years ago it was cutting edge to have a plug and phone line in every room," he said. "That all changed with the Internet."

Today's dorm rooms are more than mere rooms for rent, he said. They are a mirror of the university's merit.

"University housing exists to advance the university's mission," he said. "A good residence hall ties you into the academic purpose of the university."

Space shortage

Jennifer Buckley, the assistant director for residential life at UNLV, has watched students settle into their dorms over the past four years.

Every year more technology is unpacked from students' cars as they unload their belongings at the start of each semester, she said. To make room for students' many computer components, the university removed 10-year-old shelving from above dorm-room desks.

"What's remarkable to me is how much stuff they bring for such a small space," Buckley said. "But they really utilize their resources."

Computers, TVs and electronic games have become common in dorm rooms. What has also surprised residence hall officers, such as Schwarzmueller and Buckley, is the amount of personal items students can't seem to leave home without.

Over the course of a semester blank walls are covered, nooks and crannies bulge with mementos gathered from dances and dates, and some balconies are transformed into miniature gardens by green-thumbed students.

"They make it homey," Buckley said. "They know where to shop."

And shop they do

DeAnne Mautz, manager at the Target store closest to UNLV, at 4001 S. Maryland Parkway, said that the retail chain stocks mini-refrigerators (a dorm-room staple) as well as affordable -- and inflatable -- furniture for college students.

"We sell the very trendy stuff, more so than our other locations" in Southern Nevada, Mautz said.

The inflatable furniture flies off the shelf, she said, as do cleaning supplies, bed linens and decorative trinkets.

"I don't know what they do with it all," Mautz said.

They are exploring their own tastes with each poster or pattern they pick, said Glenna Morton, interior decorator consultant for the website About.com.

"It's a transitional time and they want to use their freedom of expression," she said. In the past year the college crowd was crazy about jungle prints, brightly colored furniture, butterfly motifs in bright blue hues, Lava lamps and black lights -- a college rite-of-passage, Morton said.

"They want cheap, available stuff that can fit into those teensy, teensy rooms," Morton said. "They'll outgrow it and move on to something else as they become older, but for now they want cheap and fun."

Home sweet dorm?

UNLV students Kathleen Frankl and Katie Shipp moved into the dorm room in September. They wanted to stretch their newfound independence -- and their budget -- when they decorated. The dance majors used Frankl's computer to surf the Internet and printed images of dancers to cover the room's stark walls.

By creating their own little corner of the world, they said, they can keep the stress of college life at bay.

"We didn't have to spend money, and it looks more like us," Shipp said as she smoothed a poster for the '80s movie "The Breakfast Club" over the room's bumpy, block walls.

To help create some atmosphere, Shipp hung inexpensive white Christmas lights around the room.

"The rooms are so dark, you need a lot of little lights to cheer things up," she said. "And study."

Decorative light fixtures -- purchased from Target -- sit next to each bed, which are heaped with pillows and blankets from home.

Home -- a place they couldn't wait to leave, but don't want to let go of completely.

Little pieces of Frankl's life before college are displayed on a scarred wood table in the corner of the shoebox-shaped room. A necklace is draped over framed photos of friends, siblings and favorite spots.

Taped to the walls beside her bed are photos of family members and pages from magazines of ballet poses and couples -- glimpses of who she may someday become.

"You have to bring plenty of things to make it your own, otherwise it's like living in a hotel room most of the year," Frankl said. "I want it to look like I live here."