Students are worried they will be doing the wrong sort of cramming after plans for new accommodation were unveiled in California.
Munger Hall, a new 4,500-bed dorm on the Santa Barbara campus, is the brainchild of Charlie Munger, the 97-year-old business partner of the investor Warren Buffett.
However, 94% of the single rooms in the $1.5bn project are in the interior of the 11-storey building and have no windows. Instead, they will have “virtual windows” – a knob to let them manipulate how much artificial light to let in, to mimic daytime or evening.
An architect on the university’s design review committee has quit in protest, saying: “The basic concept of Munger Hall as a place for students to live is unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent and a human being.”
Munger has donated $200m for the project, with the caveat that his designs are followed.
