Lofted beds will be installed in dorm rooms, possibly starting as early as this summer, William Banis, vice president for student affairs, told The Daily Wednesday.
He said he will approve a proposal he received from Northwestern’s Housing Committee to start replacing worn out beds with lofted beds. Banis did not dismiss the notion that lofted beds could appear as early as this summer.
Banis said he added two caveats to the proposal: that students be forbidden from storing flammable items under the bed and that the beds only be installed in dorms with sprinkler systems.
Although administrators had expressed concern that bed lofts could be a fire hazard, Banis said he changed his mind after talking with manufacturers at a national conference a month ago.
“I saw some loft assemblies that look good, sturdy and safe,” Banis said.
The new plan is a long-term project. Beds usually have a lifespan of about 12 years, he said.
Banis said Slivka Residential College, the science and engineering dorm that will open Fall Quarter, will not have loftable beds because its furniture was ordered before the proposal was written.
Most current students will not reap the benefits of the plan because many dorms soon will receive new beds, said Courtney Brunsfeld, a housing committee member and Associated Student Government student services vice president.
The committee originally asked risk management officials to let students build their own lofts, but officials would not approve that idea because handmade lofts could interfere with sprinkler systems, said Brunsfeld, a Weinberg junior.
Banis said he had cleaned out abandoned fraternity houses with lofts that were “less than homemade.”
“Those might be fun, but in terms of risk management, they’re not safe,” Banis said.
The plan will give students more flexibility in arranging their dorm rooms, said C.J. Willey, an ASG senator for Allison Hall who lobbied administrators for the change. Of the Big Ten schools he researched, seven allowed some form of bed lofting.
“That varied from the University of Iowa that was purely ‘build anything you want,’ to the University of Michigan that was very progressive and actually provided the students with lofts,” said Willey, a Weinberg sophomore. “If that’s what the university is going to do, I’m very impressed.”
Willey said the ban on flammable products under the bed could greatly limit what students could put there.
“I’m pretty concerned with that stipulation if it also includes things like a wooden desk or something of that nature,” he said. “I understand a loft would keep a sprinkler’s spray from reaching the desk, but that does greatly limit what people could do.”
But Willey said the proposal’s approval is a signal that administrators and students can effect positive change together.
“There’s been great progress from the beginning of the year when obviously no one could loft beds and it was completely out of the question,” he said. “I commend the administration for compromising and, perhaps in the future, this will lead to even more concessions.”
