On-campus living has come a long way since communal bathrooms and one phone per hallway. Washburn is lucky when one considers that in any room on campus, only three other people at most share one bathroom. At the very least, one can have their own room with their own bathroom in an apartment-style living arrangement. There are some dorms on some college campuses in Kansas that still have communal bathrooms. We are glad we attend a university where shower shoes are not a requirement.

In any case, there is new on-campus living at Arizona State University that has, according to Azcentral.com, a list of amenities that make the Washburn Village look like a cardboard box. The living center contains a heated pool, basketball courts, volleyball courts, an amphitheater, tanning booths, a movie theater, an 8,000 square foot gym, a yoga room and the list goes on.

This seems a bit extravagant.

Perhaps it is because most of the editorial board is from the Midwest and we attend a Midwestern university where practicality, for the most part, abounds. However, it does not seem like a heated pool and a yoga room are necessarily what a university is supposed to be about. University living used to be about having a place to sleep when one was not in the library or in a lecture. While we understand that the modern university has to adapt to modern generations, why do dorms need to be more than a space to sleep, study and sometimes hang out? Why do they have to provide a constant source of entertainment and, apparently in this case, skin cancer?

While Washburn dorms are not perfect, they are a good balance between work and play which should exist at the university. It is important to consider campus living as more and more traditional students come to Washburn’s campus and choose campus living. All play and no work makes Johnny get on academic probation.