We’re all aware of how public institutions in North America, including some great public universities, are nowadays relying on private donors to get things done. Typically some rich guy will donate a pile of money in order to get his (it almost always seems to be guys doing this) name on a building. I guess rich guys like this.
At first glance, Berkshire Hathaway investor Charles Munger’s donation to the University of California, Santa Barbara seemed to fit this usual story. It turns out however that Munger (now in his 90s) likes to dabble in architecture. His donation stipulated that he would be able to design the building (which would of course be named after him)—no modifications to his plan would be permitted.
Well, this has led to some discussion of his proposal: a 4500 person monster dorm, with exactly two (2) exits, and the vast majority of student rooms not having windows. Who needs dystopian fiction or film when you have guys like this?
I know a family back home that made a shit ton of $$ importing prison pods from China. I guess they switched to dorms seeing as for-profit prisons are not good news.
I think Mr Munger knows little (and perhaps nothing) about the current mental health crisis affecting young people, and has done little (and perhaps no) research on how natural light and other factors can reduce anxiety. His proposed monster dorm is a time bomb that attempts to solve one problem (housing) but will make other problems (the mental health crisis) worse.
I suppose on the plus side it’ll be more difficult for students to jump out of their dorm window as they will not have one.
Jester building in UT Austin looks exactly like a prison pod, I shit you not! It had the same layout as a SHU (special housing unit) in a standard BOP run Federal prison. I do not think this is a coincidence. Even the window looks prison like.
Thing about rich folks especially Americans, just want to be emperor.
Special housing unit is where they put you if you become a problem for the prison, like for example fights, or needs protection. Maximum security, 23 hour lockdown.
Some forumosans spent a couple of weeks in a quarantine hotel with a small window, or no window. Based on the posts I read, they did not seem especially delighted by the experience.
Now imagine college students, with a morning class, and no natural light to indicate that morning is coming. Yeah I’m sure that’s an awesome way to get students going in the morning.
Soooo… see, there’s these things called “alarm clocks.” Those of us who live even a little north rely on them all the time to wake up, even when it’s dark! And after doing so, we don’t walk out to a glorious location.
Kind of different. What with one being confined to a room, and the other, not.
Munger is a smart guy and a bit of a renaissance man, so it seems strange he’d design something so ugly, and without windows. On the other hand, the UCSB campus is already filled with hideous architecture, so the new dorm would probably fit right in. Seems like structures built on campuses in the 50s, 60s and 70s are mostly pretty horrible. Le Corbusier has a lot to answer for.
Same experience here. The joke around campus was always, “It was designed by prison architects.” Compared to some other dormitories, it wasn’t as nice, but I definitely enjoyed my 3 years there too.
Maybe the reason I liked it so much was because I was one of the lucky freshmen that got a room that had their own private bathrooms. Since they allow you to request the same room year after year, I stayed in the same room all 3 years.
Now that I think about it, I was lucky too. We shared a bathroom with one other room, so it wasn’t as bad. I do remember living in a shared bathroom dormitory when I went to a UT Austin camp in highschool. Not as pleasant, for sure.
