The Evolution of the College Dorm

This annotated slide show is Time magazine's story of the move from libraries surrounded by walls to modern campus residence life: "From the monastic rooms of world's first campuses to today's luxury residence halls, Time examines the ever-changing ways that students live." Interviews and captions by M.J. Stephey. This is slide number 8 of 15:

Old Meets New

The cinder-block dorms of the 1950s were ill-equipped to handle the computer revolution of the 1980s. Re-wiring buildings became an expensive and drawn-out task, as did equipping their residents. Of today's college students, writer Nicholas Carr says, "Facebook is the dorm; Wikipedia is the library; and Craigslist is the mall." Here, a freshman at Drexel University shows off a gift from her alma mater; in 1985, the school issued each incoming student a new Macintosh computer. In 2004, Duke University spent half a million to greet its freshmen with iPods. Many schools now require students to purchase computers or laptops before the school year begins.