Well, my experience has been different from the article.
Freshman year there was a decent-sized single, in a dorm with a nice common room area for socialization; but the dorm itself showed signs of aging and was in need of an interior paint job, and wi-fi was spotty. This year, our kid is in a huge double with private bath in a dorm that is a charming small house. He is really excited and happy about his room and dorm. But the paint is peeling, there are cracks in the walls, a leak needed repair, the outsides of the windows are so dirty that they are hard to see out of, and half the furniture was broken and unusable when we arrived for move-in.
Peeling paint can be lived with. Some of the other items could not. I give the maintenance staff credit for being caring and responsive and quickly addressing any issues brought to their attention.
But it appears that the college puts most of its time and money into top quality education, small classes, exciting opportunities for the students, financial aid, etc. When they do invest in facilities, they are good at splashy new projects like building a new environmentally friendly dorm, a gorgeous library, and a state-of-the-art science building. But day-to-day maintenance of existing dorms and furniture/equipment, not so much. At $70,000 a year, this annoys us as parents.
But, in the final analysis, there are a lot more important aspects to the college experience… and in those, the experience has been phenomenal so far.