Stuff to Bring to College
Cables for
Phone, Cable, and Power
Piece of
Plywood for the bed
Cinder Blocks
Lights
Bucket for
the shower
Coat Hanger
Paper Towel Holder
Duct Tape/Gaffers
Tape
Fan
Humidifier
Air Filter
Cables for Phone, Cable,
and Power
Currently the only phone hookup is to your left as you enter the room.
The cable hookup is to your right. You will need cable to get these services
to wherever your TV or phone will be used. Last year we had our link to
the outside world, we wire tied all the wires together, but they included
phone, cable, network cables, etc.
RIT prohibits the use of extensions cords of all types. The only thing
allowed is UL Listed power strips. There are 4 outlets in the room, two
on each wall. You will probably need at least one power strip per outlet
in order to plug everything in.
RIT installed Raceway along the walls in all the rooms for an Ethernet
Computer Network. These will also in the future contain power and phone
connections, which will supposedly reduce the need to run cable across
the room.
Piece of Plywood for
the bed
The RIT supplied beds consist of a steel frame with springs stretched
across which supports the mattress. After a while these springs stretch,
creating what has come to be called the "Hammock Effect" where
the center of the bed sinks in, a tremendous problem, especially if you
sleep on your back or side. A small piece of plywood stuck between the
mattress and the springs will fix this problem.
Cinder Blocks
If you haven't noticed already cinder blocks are used extensively in
all areas of room construction. Cinder blocks are in such high demand at
the beginning of the school year that the local Builders Square ran out.
Almost everyone puts their beds, bunked or not up on blocks. Its so common
that a bunk bed on the floor looks funny. This opens up a lot of storage
space under the bed, some refridgerators even will fit underneath. We also
put our couch on wooden blocks to get it out of the way of the Ethernet
conduit, but that created a little extra space as well.
Lights
RIT supplied lighting in our room consists of a ceiling mounted 8"
circular flourescent light that gives off very little light. Some rooms
on campus have no lights at all supplied.
I personally feel that flourescent lighting is the best way to go.
It is cheap, safe, and gives off a lot of light. Another common lighting
method is the use of halogen lights, these are effective but get very hot
during use and could easily ignite surrounding materials if not careful.
Rumors have said that RIT is planning to ban the use of such lights, but
at the time of the writing of this I have heard nothing.
Bucket for the shower
A fairly common method for transporting all your shower items to the
bathroom is through the use of a 2.5 gallon bucket. Simply keep your shampoo,
soap, and anything else neccesary in the bucket. Cleanup and storage is
easy. Various other basket type ideas are in use but its all the same idea.
Coat Hanger Paper Towel
Holder
The second most valuable all purpose item you can bring with you is
wire coat hangers and a pair of heavy-duty wire cutters. Using these items
I easily created a Paper Towel hanger, which hangs off our closet
shelf extension. It has a hook on one side to enable changing paper
towel rolls. Crushing the cardboard tube inside the roll before putting
in the holder will keep it from unrolling when getting a paper towel.
Duct Tape/Gaffers Tape
The number one most valuable item you can bring with you to school.
Whether its hanging posters, stringing cable, or picking lint off your
sweater, Duct tape can help. It is often said that Duct tape can fix anything,
well almost anything.
Last year we noticed that when you remove duct tape that has been stuck
to something for an extended period of time it leaves behind a sticky residue.
This residue is removable but is often a lot of work. Working for a theater
for the past two summers I came across a different kind of tape called
Gaffers tape. This tape is a cloth based tape, which is heat resistant,
and better than duct tape in my opinion. One major plus it that it can
be removed easily from things it is stuck to, including itself while retaining
its stickyness. It rarely leaves behind a residue, but when it does it
is easily removable. The only problem is that a a good quality tape is
around $11 for a large roll. But it is available in 19 different colors,
we purchased a roll of black and a roll of white. We used white for hanging
stuff on the walls as it blends better. We also used it on the edges of
our desks which were unfinished.
Fan
During the early part of fall quarter you might run into some hot days
and a fan will be helpful. Beyond that you will want it to keep the air
circulating in your room. During the winter the heat is on all the time,
there is no thermostat, so we are forced to open and close the window to
compensate, and a fan will help circulate the cold air so one end of the
room isn't really cold while the other is still warm.
Humidifier
Since the heat is on all winter, and we open the window to compensate,
the air gets really dry in the rooms. A cup of water will evaporate in
no time, but that usually isn't fast enough. Sometimes you will wake up
with a dry mouth or nose, and more often the problem will be static electricity.
Depending on you and the shoes you wear, and obviously the humidity, you
will build up quite a bit of static electricity which will happily discharge
to the metal door knobs, or any other metal object. I had a pair of boots
last year that grounded me so well I would generate a lot of static electricity
and was afraid to touch anything because the spark was so big and was pretty
painful. So a humidifier will help in this problem. Use common sense in
choosing one keeping in mind their potential to spread germs if not kept
clean, or cause pneumonia if the droplets aren't the right size. Mine actually
heats the water and boils it off as a steam, so it sterilizes the water
somewhat beforehand. The only problem I have with it is a buildup of whatever
minerals RIT has in their water.
Air Filter
One if the biggest problems we have here is Dust. There is tons of
it and it will infultrate every little corner of your room. This year it
wasn't helped by the fact that RIT installed the Ethernet late summer and
fall and winter quarters in our rooms. This required cutting holes through
the walls, which occured before move-in but still left visible dust on
the walls. Then they came through and drilled holes through the walls again,
our walls are two sheets of drywall so there was a bit of dust involved.
This is especially bad for your computer and stereo equipment which need
the air flow to stay cool. As Humorist Dave Barry says, Computers are just
really expensive air cleaners, sacrificing their lives to save ours. If
you don't want to invest in a real air cleaner, do what we did and buy
the air filters for a home furnace system available at many stores for
around $2. Cut these to fit over the front of your fan and tape them around
the edge. The air forced through the filter will be filtered of at least
the larger dust.
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