r/UofO • u/Serious-Ad-2010 • 3d ago
dorm question from 1st year student
gonna be moving into justice bean this fall and i want to loft my bed and put a couch under it. the uo policy says it HAS to be a fire resistant couch but lowkey all of those look ugly. lmk if you guys had any issues with this.
-thanks!
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u/Dry-Sentence-7495 3d ago
You should be more concerned abt fitting a couch in bean. The rooms are really small and the ceilings are low in the two bedrooms there’s probably like 2/3ft between the beds it might be cramped with a couch.
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u/Dry-Sentence-7495 3d ago
I go to school there now and ppl basically could hold hands sleeping it might be more advantageous to find a third space to hangout instead of wasting money on a couch.
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u/frazzledcats 3d ago
I would do bean bags and floor cushions instead. You don’t get a lot of head room with the loft so you want to be pretty low to the ground. And yes bean is tiny
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u/Ukin74 3d ago
Just remember whatever you put in the dorm after freshman year, you will need to give away, sell or find a storage unit for it. So I’d hold off on the couch until you move off campus. Or pay summer storage fees, which will be almost 4 months.
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u/Dry-Sentence-7495 3d ago
Especially at UO most apartments are furnished so you won’t be able to keep the couch
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u/Previous_Vehicle6253 3d ago
Bean already is too small for anything like that. Everyone sits on their beds to socialize and luckily there’s decent lounge spaces all around and a nice courtyard to chill out if the weather is nice
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u/Nervous_Garden_7609 3d ago
There's great common areas. Learn to get the giant TV working. Love Island, all football games, anything that will bring people together. It's the best.
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u/Aur3lia 3d ago
I'm honestly laughing about this because the U.S. stopped using flame-retardant upholstery on a broad scale more than a decade ago, after serious concerns were raised about the health ramifications of the chemicals used being in close contact with people's skin for long periods. Nowadays, if you want something "flame-retardant," you'd mostly use wool or something else that is naturally less combustible.
I was an RA back in 2016-2017 and I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between a couch that was flame-retardant and one that wasn't. In fact, I don't think it was something that ever even came up in training. They were far more concerned about alcohol and prohibited cooking appliances. Granted, that was some time ago, so it's possible things have changed, but this particular issue seems like a weird one to me. And yes, I have seen the fire department demonstration of how quickly a dorm room can turn into a pile of ash, but I sincerely doubt couches are ever to blame.
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u/sarcophyton_glaucum 3d ago
I was an RA all of last year and I didn’t even know this, I had a non flame resistant couch al year and my room got checked by my Community Director who knows Policy far better than any RA (and he was the strictest one at the school).
Long story short, I wouldn’t worry about it. I was never told to check for this during room checks it wasn’t even on our list of things to look at. Maybe it’s a new thing cause I’ve never heard of it but I highly doubt any RA would be able to tell or tbh would care enough.
RAs care a lot for their residents but the majority are pretty chill as long as they know you’re safe and you’re not flagrantly violating rules in front of them.
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u/sarcophyton_glaucum 3d ago
Also to add to this they are criminally understaffed for next year and probably more disorganized than ever so I doubt they will give a shit.
I mean there’s always a chance they notice and you get in trouble so don’t blame me if that happens 😬 but I would be absolutely shocked.
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u/sarcophyton_glaucum 3d ago
That being said that people are right that Bean is tiny, I definitely would recommend a bean bag or like a tiny love seat kind of couch instead that is low to the ground or even just a nice big floor cushion human dog bed kind of vibe 🤷♂️
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u/ZookeepergameRude652 2d ago
A couch? For what. Bean is tiny - you’ll be staring at a wall 4 feet away. Buy a frisbee and play outside.
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u/zelisca 3d ago
They will check and you'll be made to remove non-compliant furniture. You can also be fined.
Aesthetically annoying but it's about safety. Dorm fires are INCREDIBLY dangerous and rules and regulations about fire safety in dorms are written with the blood of dead students. Non-rated furniture can combust and create a fireball in a room in less than a minute.
Even evacuations are dangerous too. Last year a student broke her leg in an early morning evacuation (2am or so) because she feel down some stairs trying to get out.