dorm

A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university students. In some countries, it can also refer to a room containing several beds accommodating people.

Terminology

Dorm and residence hall

The terms "dorm" is often used in the US. However, within the residence life community, the official term "residence hall" is preferred. According to the University of Oregon, their facilities "provide not just a place to sleep, but also opportunities for personal and educational growth. Highly trained Residence Life staff and Hall Government officers support this objective by creating engaging activities and programs in each hall or complex."

In the UK, the preferred term in the context of student housing is "halls," short for "halls of residence." In English-speaking Canada, the common term is "residence" or "res" for short.

In Australia the terms "halls of residence" and "halls" are common, but
college
(or, more formally, "residential college") is also used in the cases of halls of residence that are named as such (''e.g.'' Robert Menzies College, Trinity College, and Mannix College); residential colleges commonly have a Christian ethos.

Dormitory, hall of residence, house, hostel and barracks

In United Kingdom usage, the word dormitory means a room containing several beds accommodating unrelated people. In the United Kingdom, this arrangement exists typically for pupils at a boarding school, travellers or military personnel, but is almost entirely unknown for university students.

In United Kingdom usage, a building providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people is called a hall of residence (university students), house (members of a religious community or pupils at a boarding school), hostel (students, workers or travellers) or barracks (military personnel). In the United Kingdom, halls of residence almost entirely have single occupancy rooms, are almost always mixed sex, with residents being allocated to adjacent rooms regardless of sex.

Off-campus residence

Halls located away from university facilities sometimes have extra amenities such as a recreation room or bar. As with campus located residence halls, these off-campus halls commonly also have Internet facilities, either through a network connection in each student room, a central computer cluster room, or Wi-Fi. Catered halls may charge for food by the meal or through an termly subscription. They may also contain basic kitchen facilities for student use outside catering hours. Most halls contain a laundry room. As of 2015 there was an expanding market for private luxury off-campus student residences which offered substantial amenities in both the United States and Britain, particularly in London.

College and university dormitories

Most colleges and universities provide single or multiple occupancy rooms for their students, usually at a cost. These buildings consist of many such rooms, like an apartment building. The largest dormitory building is Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy.

Many colleges and universities no longer use the word "dormitory" and staff are now using the term residence hall (analogous to the United Kingdom "hall of residence") or simply "hall" instead. Outside academia however, the word "dorm" or "dormitory" is commonly used without negative connotations. Indeed, the words are used regularly in the marketplace as well as routinely in advertising.

United States

Typically, a United States residence hall room holds two students with no toilet. This is usually referred to as a "double". Often, residence halls have communal bathroom facilities.
In the United States, residence halls are sometimes segregated by sex, with men living in one group of rooms, and women in another. Some dormitory complexes are single-sex with varying limits on visits by persons of each sex. For example, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana has a long history of Parietals, or mixed visiting hours. Most colleges and universities offer coeducational dorms, where either men or women reside on separate floors but in the same building or where both sexes share a floor but with individual rooms being single-sex. In the early 2000s, dorms that allowed people of opposite sexes to share a room became available in some public universities. Some colleges and university coeducational dormitories also feature coeducational bathrooms. Many newer residence halls offer single rooms as well as private bathrooms, or suite-style rooms.

Most residence halls are much closer to campus than comparable private housing such as apartment buildings. This convenience is a major factor in the choice of where to live since living physically closer to classrooms is often preferred, particularly for first-year students who may not be permitted to park vehicles on campus. Universities may therefore provide priority to first-year students when allocating this accommodation.

United Kingdom

In UK universities these buildings are usually called ''halls of residence'' (commonly referred to as ''halls''), except at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, York, Lancaster and Kent where the residential accommodation is incorporated in each college's complex of buildings, and simply known as ''rooms''. Members of the college who live in its own buildings are usually said to be ''living in'' or ''living in college''.

The majority of bedrooms in UK halls are now single occupancy – offering the first chance at privacy for some young people who shared bedrooms with siblings at home. Many universities offer a range of catering options, from fully catered (with meals served in a canteen or dining hall) to fully self-catered with kitchen facilities within the accommodation. Kitchens are usually shared, as are bathrooms in some halls, though en-suite rooms and self-contained studios are available in some universities for a higher price. At most universities, on-campus or university-owned halls of residence tend to be predominantly occupied by first-year students, and it is common for continuing students to move into privately rented accommodation such as house shares or purpose-built private halls for the remainder of their degree.

UK universities have seen increased funding from the Higher Education fees structure which has gradually been replacing direct grants from central government. This increasing reliance on income directly from students, as opposed entirely from direct taxation, in part, has led to an increase in the rental of student accommodation during the winter, spring, and summer vacation periods to house conference delegates and tourists, often at rates similar to those charged by upmarket hotels. During these periods students vacate their rooms if they are not required by them during non-term-time. As a result, several student-focused personal storage and shipping companies have appeared in order to cater for this need.

At some institutes in the UK, each residence hall has its own hall council. Where they exist, such individual councils are usually part of a larger organization called, variously, a residence hall association, a resident students' association, or a junior common room committee, which typically provides funds and oversees the individual building council. These student-led organizations are often connected together at a national level by the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH). Collectively, these hall councils plan social and educational events and voice student needs to their respective administration.

Purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) has become more popular with developers, operators and students, with an ever increasing array of services and facilities provided in cluster accommodation and studio style apartments. Increasingly in the UK, new "off-campus" student accommodation is being built by private providers who market premium hotel-style rooms to international students at higher rates than are charged for university-owned rooms. Some of the companies which have developed such accommodation are based offshore to avoid tax.

Germany

In Germany there are dormitories called "Studentenwohnheim" (plural: Studentenwohnheime). Most Studentenwohnheime are run by the Studentenwerk (an organisation providing social, financial and cultural support services to students in Germany, comparable to student unions in the UK). Some Studentenwohnheime are run by a Catholic or Protestant church. Church-run facilities are sometimes single-sex.
Studentenwohnheime may be situated on or off campus. They are usually low cost and serve students with limited budget. Flats may be shared with other students or may be studio-type, with en-suite bathroom and kitchen facilities. The rooms themselves are mostly single occupancy.

India

In India the dormitories are called "PG housing" or "student hostels". Even though most of the colleges/universities have hostels on-campus, however in most of the cases it is not enough for the total students enrolled. Majority of the students prefer to stay off-campus in PGs and private hostels as they usually have better amenities and services. For example, in 2015 estimated 1.8 lakh (180,000) students enrolled with Delhi University , there are only about 9,000 seats available in its hostels for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The university admits an average of 54,000 students every year. Which leaves a majority of students to find accommodation off-campus. This is led to a lot of student hostel or student PG chains to be established near Delhi University.

France

In France dormitories are called "chambres universitaires" managed by regional public services called CROUS. They are usually located nearby or inside university campuses but many exceptions occur as universities may be settled within cities. Rooms are usually individual, costing around 300US$ per month with a collective kitchen and often collective bathrooms. Some "University cities" are famous such as the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris.

Hong Kong

Universities in Hong Kong are modeled on the British education system, with halls consequently being similar to those in the United Kingdom.

China

In China, dormitories are called "宿舍" (pinyin: sùshè). Dorms for mainland Chinese students usually have four to six students of the same sex living together in one room, with buildings usually being entirely gender-segregated and sometimes intentionally placed at some distance from each other to make inappropriate fraternization between male and female students more difficult. Sleeping hours may be enforced by cutting electricity at a given time, for instance at midnight.

Chinese students from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan live separately in their own dorms, as do foreigners. Mainlanders who are fluent in English or any foreign language may live in the foreigner- Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan dorms, assuming they will be a roommate and participate in the foreign student activities, in order to help people get accustomed to mainland Chinese life. The quality of these dorms is usually better than that of mainland student dorms, with rooms either shared between only two people or completely private for a single student. Sexual decency attitudes are laxer than in mainlander dorms, with males and females sharing the same buildings and sometimes corridors (though not rooms). Students are allowed to bring visitors – including mainlanders – of the opposite sex to their rooms. Guests may or may not be allowed to stay overnight, depending on the rules of the dorm. Electricity is usually available at all hours of the day.

Most dormitories for foreigners are run by the Foreign Students' Education Office (a department providing support services to students in China). They may be on campus or off campus. They are usually low cost and serve students.

Notable halls and complexes

Michigan State University, Ohio University, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Copenhagen, and London are six diverse and relevant examples of notable residential campuses that each display different relevances to contemporary dormitories in higher education. Michigan State has the largest hall; Ohio possesses four residential greens built into the campus; Wisconsin-Milwaukee has four notable tower constructions to house students; Texas maintains a residence hall with several high-tech amenities; Copenhagen has one of the world's oldest residence halls; and London possesses one of the largest metropolitan living quarters for university students.

Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey

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