How do you decorate your room? By Jodi Garber Knight-Ridder Newspapers The walls are bare and institutional, the two single beds are bunked, the closet is too small, and there is only one window. Welcome to your dorm room. Millions of young people this month are packing up and heading to institutions of higher learning and crowded living. For those used to the homeyness of, well, home, many dorm rooms appear completely unlivable at first. But given time and creativity, dorms can become more comfortable. From posters to paint to beanbags to lava lamps, small touches make the home-to-dorm transition more tolerable. Diversity is the best thing about dorm decoration, according to Kevin Mauch, 23, of Lamar, Colo., a resident assistant at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. "Every room has its own characteristic," he said. "Kids in one room are into swing (music), down the hall they're into Gothic and you walk into another room and you can see that these people obviously worship the big marijuana leaf because they have posters all over the place." "I had one set of residents who stapled white bedsheets to the ceiling with Christmas lights up underneath," Hane said. "It looked really cool until I told them it was a fire hazard, and they had to take it BASIC DECORATING TIPS down." Cheryl Ammons, an interior designer at The Home Depot on Woodmen Road in Colorado Springs, Colo., knows how tedious dorm living can be. "It is possible to make your dorm room very much like home if you want to," said Ammons, who lived in the dorms at the University of Redlands in California for four Campus news shorts Clinton and Starr together? College Press Exchange PALO ALTO, Calif. (CPX) - This year's Most Unlikely To Be Roommates Award goes to Chelsea Clinton and Carolyn Starr, both of whom are expected to attend Stanford University this fall. Clinton is returning for her sophomore year. Starr, daughter of independent counsel Kenneth Starr, has been accepted to the university, a spokeswoman for Starr's office has said. School officials refused to comment about the matter, but it's likely Carolyn Starr will enter the university this year because she applied - and was accepted - during the early admissions period. Dormitory assignments for the women are not known, but it's unlikely Clinton and Starr will be sleeping under the same roof. Football hazing College Press Exchange ALFRED, NY (CPX) - Alfred University's president ordered the forfeiture of the school's first football game of the season after learning about a recent weekend party in which upper-classmen on the team allegedly tied up freshman players and forced them to drink alcohol or water until they vomited. Five players on the team were arrested on several charges connected , to the incident, including giving alcohol to minors. School officials said paramedics treated five students who had attended the party for alcohol poisoning. Two of the five, ages 17 'and 18, were taken to a local hospital and released. President Edward G. Coll, Jr., had considered calling off the university's Her suggestions for making the room more comfortable: Get a lamp that gives off natural, not fluorescent light; paint the walls if you have permission; and use a throw rug to spice up the room. Ammons isn't far off, say resident advisers at CU-Springs. Matt Hane, 20, of Fruita said throw rugs are popular in dorm rooms, and throw pillows are, too. "Think light and cheap," he said. "Anything you bring in, if you don't like it, you have to be able to throw it away." THINK CREATIVE But making your dorm room your own isn't just about pillows and lamps; it's about personality, too. "We had an event on campus, and some girls posted all of the flyers on their wall," said Rhiannon Atencio, 21, of Colorado Springs. She also noticed residents making wall decorations from magazine pages, beverage cans and shower curtains with university mascots. Many students shop at thrift stores and antique stores for furniture and decorations. "It depends on how comfortable you are with being thrifty," Hane said. HOW WILL IT ALL FIT? A little bit of ingenuity can save a lot of space in dorms. "One of the trends here, because the rooms are entire football season but instead decided that the six players thought to be responsible for the party - including the team's co-captains - should be suspended from the team for the rest of the season. One player, on probation for another unrelated violation, was expelled. The university also is requiring the remaining 89 players on the team, 47 of whom are freshmen, to attend classes on substance abuse awareness. "The measures we are announcing will be called harsh by some," Coll said in a written statement. "But I assure you their severity pales in comparison to the tragedy that could have occurred this past weekend. I wanted our football team to know that we will not tolerate this kind of behavior." Alfred University, a Division 111 school in New York, had been scheduled to play Susquehanna University during the season opener. Students cheat on ACT College Press Exchange ITTA BENA, Miss. (CPX) - Twenty-four students at Mississippi Valley State University face expulsion for cheating on the ACT, school officials said. President Lester C. Newman announced during a Sept. 2 press conference that three school employees had allowed 14 students to take the exam for 14 other students. Two of the employees have resigned and the third has been suspended and may be fired. Of the 14 students potentially benefiting from the scam, six were varsity athletes. The university terminated the enrollment of three other athletes who would have entered this fall. University officials said they suspect students agreed to take the National Campus News Thursday, Septemberlo, 1998 The Behrend College Beacon - Page 5 so small, is that we' re allowed to loft our beds, and people put big futons and bean bags underneath," Atencio said. Ammons had a similar space-saving tip. "It you have both beds pointing out from one corner, you can build a corner unit: a wood square with legs on it," she said. If you build the legs long enough, you can even push the beds underneath the table to save more space, creating extra storage or display space. Another space-saving trend Atencio has noticed is, "buying cool little storage units." The best pace to shop for such items? "I think everybody who lives here shops at Target. It's a bad store, because you go there to buy one thing for your room and walk out with 10," Atencio said. Debra Fritz, national Target home decor consultant, said the retailer is aiming for the college student market, which is why its dorm-room products are so popular. "They literally bring in merchandise strictly geared for somebody going back to college," she said. Other items most dorm residents could not live without include refrigerators, microwaves and stereos. How do those appliances fit in the rooms? Stacking. "Always buy a smaller microwave than refrigerator," said Hane, who once tried - unsuccessfully - to help a resident with a huge microwave stack it on top of a smaller fridge. As far as furniture goes, Fritz said the butterfly chair and the inflatable chair are popular; both are easy to pack and store. "You can't ship furniture to school, but the inflatable chairs can exam for the athletes because they wanted to ensure that the athletes would be eligible to play this season. Newman said the fraud was discovered two weeks ago after university officials noticed irregularities in test scores dating to 1997. He said he is confident the National Collegiate Athletic Association will not penalize the school because the matter was handled quickly. Newman said he intends to give full reports on the matter to NCAA officials and to a state board that oversees higher education and will decide each of the student's punishment. Beer served at Lehigh? College Press Exchange LEHIGH, Pa. - Pennsylvania's Liquor Control Board recently flattened a Lehigh University proposal to offer beer and wine at an on-campus restaurant. School officials had hoped to create a "controlled environment" where students could hang out and drink responsibly. Alcohol would have been served on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the Stage Door Restaurant inside the university's student center. Wristbands would have been used to identify those students old enough to drink: The idea, school officials said, fit into the . university's larger plan to curb abusive drinking - a plan that includes more alcohol-free events and a substance-free dormitory opened to 50 freshmen this year. But the three-member liquor board called the idea "inappropriate" and said it could "greatly influence the binge-drinking culture" on campus. They also said the idea was inconsistent with state grants recently given to establish communitywide efforts to stop dangerous drinking on campus. fold up and fit in a suitcase, and the butterfly chairs are also easy to transport," she said. DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT Some dorm-life must-haves that easily can be forgotten include shower caddies and shower shoes. "If you don't have a shower caddy, your soap will mold into the shower; it's really gross," Hane said. A basic shower caddy costs around $5 or $lO. Shower shoes (flip-(lops) ere's a real tough By Thnika White Knight-Ridder Newspapers LEXINGTON, Mo. - As Lindsey Royal dreams in the early morning darkness, her crisp outfit hangs tidily in the closet, picked out specially for this, the first day of school. Everything matches perfectly. Baggy pants in pea and olive green. Matching jacket with the sleeves rolled just so. T-shirt the color of stirred mud. When she arises, shortly before the sun, Royal, 16, will have barely 30 minutes to make her bed, clean her room, brush her teeth, dress, tuck her hair under her hat and carry her laundry downstairs. It is a race she will have to perfect. Or else. "Let's go! Let's go!" screams Sarah Martinez, 19, of Lawrence, Kan., as she strides through the Wentworth Military Academy hall where Royal and her hall mates sentry biget ready. "What is wrong with you? You knew' what time , youtre all tripposed to ' be downstairs! Why do I have to keep telling you?" Royal sucks in her breath, throws her laundry bag over her right shoulder and steps out into the cold hallway, joining a single file line with the other new cadets. The Rat line. All 16 Rats are wearing the same camouflage outfit, down to billowing pant legs tucked snugly into ungiving boots. Every left arm swings in time with every right leg, hurried and purposeful. "Move it!" Martinez yells, as the recruits in training thunder downstairs to stand outside, side by side with their feet shoulder-width apart and their hands clasped flat behind their backs. Boot tops are glistening. Laces are tucked. Hearts are pounding. It is 0620 hours, and Royal and 239 other cadets, both old and new, will do more before school starts than most students do all day. Wentworth Military Academy and Junior College, founded in 1880, is one of the nation's oldest military schools. Students as young as 12 and as old as college sophomores come to the school to be enveloped in order, discipline, respect and honor. In addition to a rigid military structure, the school prides itself on strong academics that guide 95 percent of its graduates to college. Classes start each day at 0800 hours - 8:00 a.m. An optional before-school study period and a mandatory evening study period eventually become as habitual for the cadets as reveille and taps. And a tightly made bed with unwrinkled sheets and hospital corners begins to look as normal as a messy room used to. It all begins on the first day, which for this year's students was one week ago. Three ear-piercing cannon blasts, not bells or buzzers, sounded the start of the school year. That's appropriate, said John Tubbert, 17, a junior from Leawood, Kan., who has been at Wentworth two years. "It has power. It has prestige. It's can cost as little as two or three dollars at a drug store. Also, if you are not used to showering in a semi public area, you may want to bring a bathrobe. They also come in handy if you have to walk down the hall from the bathroom to your room. Most college dorm rooms, including those at CU-Springs, have extra-long twin-sized mattresses that use longer sheets. While sheets usually can be ordered through the mail from your college, you often can find more stylish sheets at stores. Extra-long comforters also are available, but a regular twin comforter will work just as well. Other important items real symbolism of the start of a real military school." Cadets had to be on campus at least four days before the official start of school so the Old Boys - cadets enrolled longer than one semester - could train the Rats in the Wentworth way. It's not your traditional learn your-way-from-class-to-class, memorize-your-locker combination, get-on-the-yellow bus-and-go-home school. There's the marching. The commands. Learning who outranks whom. How to salute, when to salute. The cleaning, folding, straightening, polishing. Early to bed, early to rise. Push ups, sit-ups and jogging. Incessant yelling. Just the repetition of it all. "Elf!" Pause. "Elf!" Pause. "Elf! Aight!" (Which is "left, left, left, right" to civilians.) "Elf!" Pause. "Elf!" Pause. "Elf! Aight!" The school brings them in a fevi cbqs. early sc. t h at ¢y t !" Fint day of, classes, Rats should have the routine down pat. It isn't easy, though. Many tears are shed and tempers flare in the learning process. "I was shocked," Kim Kachner, a college freshman from St. Joseph, Mich., said of her first few days. "I didn't realize how military it would be. Everybody was doing things I didn't understand. I called my mom and cried." And why not? Cadets shower communally, there are no doors on bathroom stalls, and all the niceties of home are long gone. "Do you remember television?" Kachner asked one of her fellow Rats. "That thing that looks like a box with pictures on it?" David Nevels, 12, of Blue Springs, Mo., was so disoriented and homesick on the first day of classes, he couldn't bring himself to eat breakfast with his company. "I'm just not hungry," the seventh-grader shrugged, as scores of other cadets scarfed their chow in relative silence, save scraping, chomping and slurping. Homesickness is not nurtured at Wentworth. Even on the first day. Alan Buckrucker of Kansas City is the same age as Nevels and in the same company - Foxtrot. But he is an Old Boy, having been at Wentworth since the sixth grade. Though he is smaller, he has the right to order Nevels around. And does. Nevels doesn't like it much. Buckrucker revels in it. Buckrucker says he will make no allowances for Nevels. "I just don't believe in it (homesickness)," said Buckrucker, the product of two military parents. "Everybody has to get away from their parents at some point." School officials say homesickness usually wears off after two or three weeks, once the routine becomes second nature and the Rats bond with their Rat buddies - walking in line together, getting reprimanded together and memorizing their Rat facts together. include a laundry hag, Fritz says, especially if it is a cool color, a message hoard for your door so friends can leave notes. Also, make sure to bring dishes: A plate, cup, howl and some silverware should work for most purposes Many students bring computers, stereos and televisions to college. One caution: 4-foot speakers or a big-screen television may be too large for dorm rooms. And the chances of expensive equipment getting broken or damaged in a dorm room are higher than they are at home. college "I (sir//ma'am) am (sir//ma'am) lower (sir//ma'am) than (sir// ma'am) a (sir//ma'am) snake's (sir/ /ma'am) belly (sir//ma'am)," is one line of five pages of facts Rats must recall on demand. Once the facts are memorized, Rats earn their hat brass, which gives them Old Boy privileges for one day. They can call their parents, drink soda and talk to other Old Boys at meals. They can travel from point A to point B without having to walk the Rat line - a narrow line with sharp corners. And they don't have to ask permission to speak, scratch or otherwise move while standing in formation. If a Rat breaks one of these rules before earning the hat brass, physical training usually is the immediate punishment. "Give me 10!" company commander Martinez yelled to Brooke Staples, 15, of Laurel, Miss., who forgot she was supposed to call the hall to attention at first sight of her commander. "One, ma'am ... Two, ma'am" puffed Staples, who as . a high school freshman is one of the youngest giris ever admitted to Wentworth. Girls usually aren't admitted until their junior year. Just as Staples reached push-up number 10, Martinez walked away, missing the Rat's barely audible "Permission to recover, ma'am?" Five seconds went by. Six, seven. "Did she speak?" Staples whispered, arms straining, cheeks flushed. She would not relax her arms until she was told to. The discipline was kicking in. "A lot of the females this year are here because they want to be here, and that makes our jobs a lot easier," said Jill Girod, a senior from Parker, Colo. About half of the school's residential population chose Wentworth themselves; many hope to pursue military careers. The other half came because parents wanted them here. Bad grades or constant behavior problems prompted the severe change in scholastic environment. And the investment is a big one; tuition and fees come to about $19,000 a year. But for many students, officials and cadets say, it pays off in the end. Vicky Orozco, a senior from Houston, said she was into drugs and gangs and skipping school until her parents shipped her off to Wentworth two years ago. Today, she has straightened up and wants to study to be a physician's assistant in college. "When you're here, who you are back home doesn't matter," Orozco, 17, said. "At first, you're just a Rat like everybody else." Following the Rat line. Marching and polishing. Up at 0600. Formation before breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mandatory cleaning detail. A full day's classes. Physical training every day. "Double time it, Rat!" "Drop and give me 20!" Mandatory study sessions. Prepare for tomorrow. Iron and polish. And, depending on your age, in bed every night by 2200 or 2300 hours. Day is done. Gone the sun....
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers