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Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University. Wellington Vol. 24, No. 2. 1961

Problems of Collective Living

Problems of Collective Living

The lodging standard and habits of university students are by no means the same as those of the ordinary citizen. Collective living is liable to produce considerable adjustment difficulties unless they are dealt with in advance. Although, considered in a body, students may present a mass picture, nevertheless each student much be treated separately as an individual. Excessively large dormitory buildings and, above all, excessively large rooms would collect too many different individuals under the same roof, but excessively small dormitory buildings might harmfully isolate individuals from their environment and from other people too much. Thus the Finnish student dormitories have been so designed to have mostly double rooms. More mature students have the opportunity of enjoying the peace and quiet of a single room, a valuable asset while studying for final examinations. There are very few rooms for three tenants.

Student dormitories are erected, as far as possible, in the close vicinity of institutions of learning and reasonably near various art, recreation and amusement establishments. Certain of the dormitory buildings afford opportunities for participation in various activities like sports, games, developing photographic negatives and making prints, etc.

All the large dormitory buildings have a restaurant of their own and, moreover, it is possible for one to cook tea, coffee and small meals for oneself in them. The smaller dormitories generally have a kitchen which the tenants are at liberty to occupy and use according to their needs. Many of the buildings have central radio and telephone outlets connected in each room or floor, and some television receiving sets have started to make their appearance. Thus many of the students feel more at home in their dormitories than even in their own homes.

The first of the student dormitory buildings, the Domus Academica, owned by the Students' Union of the University of Helsinki, was ready for occupancy in 1950. The complex, which is situated some two kilometres away from the University, consists of three buildings, each seven storeys high, which accommodates 600 tenants. There is a long corridor on each floor, lined on both sides with rooms as well as the necessary sanitation faculties and other conveniences. Each storey also has a common living room and one of the buildings has a tennis court, another a sauna steambath, and the third a restaurant. In the immediate vicinity is the new library building belonging to the Students' Union, containing over 150,000 volumes.