Getting students to brag about how cute their dorms are is harder than you might expect. When I pitched the idea of a dorm decor contest to our editor-in-chief a few weeks ago, she mentioned that the idea had come up previously, but no one had followed through on it. 

I reached out to Jay Davis, coordinator of Residential Life, to ask if she’d send our poster for the contest out to the residential assistants for further exposure. Davis was happy to help, and even upped the ante of the contest with a cash (wolfbucks) prize! Davis revamped our poster with the kicky and alliterative title “Battle of the Beds”. We put the poster up around campus and promoted it on Instagram, prompting students to upload photos of their dorms or their friend’s dorms. 

We received 13 submissions. Each submission had varying shots of their dorms, but I ultimately decided to focus on the bed corner of the dorms, as it’s the one shot they all had in common. We left the voting to the Maroon’s Instagram followers through a “March Madness” bracket-style. This was very much a “figure it out as you go” type of story, and I’m excited to repeat it next year with a broader voting range and more parts of the dorms overall. I want to hear your feedback on how we want this shindig to go down next year. Higher stakes prizes? Full out election campaigns? Email [email protected] with your thoughts. 

For now, we congratulate junior Sunny Bedford for her win (bed is in her name, it’s practically destined). Bedford describes her room as “Everything I love and a lot of hate for overhead lights.” Enjoy photos of the top 4 runners up (roomies Amelie Aucoin and Finley Tomlinson submitted as one). Thanks to Jay Davis for all her help, and congratulations to all the nominees!

Gallery • 5 Photos

Elise Beck

Finley Tomlinson's dorm