I think schools should try to strike a balance: no one wants to live in a ridiculously-small room with no air conditioning and two showers for the entire hall, but a palatial residence hall is unnecessary. (I’ve seen both on college tours and didn’t like them.) However, a modestly-sized, relatively new-ish dorm with some simple perks – such as study rooms or maybe a ping pong table or a TV in the basement – are fine, IMO.
It’s nice that more and more schools are offering several dorm styles/levels – students can choose older, community-style dorms to save money or a larger, suite-style room if they’d like to pay a little more to have their own bathroom, for instance.
I read an article somewhere (possibly linked on CC, I forget) with a quote from a college rep that basically said that colleges build fancy dorms to attract students, but in reality, most students will live in very low-quality dorms IF the price is right. The school built an “economy” dorm and both the students and the school saved money.
Side note: college cafeterias are also being rapidly luxury-ified. Personally, I’m not complaining 