Winners Of Amazing Room Contest Create Four-Dorm Mega-Room, Sued For Destruction of Property

Seven University of Iowa freshmen and one sophomore were surprised to discover a lawsuit against them for $50,000 dollars per person for destruction of property after they combined four adjacent dorm rooms into one mega-dorm for the 2021 Amazing Room Contest.

Sophomore engineering major River Johnson, who claims to have led this renovation, argues that, “while a lawsuit for destruction of property would make perfect sense, a lawsuit for improving a property is utterly baffling.”

Most prominent of the renovations was the removal of walls and floors between the four dorm-mega-room, making the space two dorms wide and two dorms tall. Two quadruple bunk beds line the side walls. Connecting the top bunks and extending for about a third of the length of the dorm is a lofted area made out of welded sheet metal and superglued to both the bunk beds and held aloft by six three-drawer dressers stacked on top of eachother.

The doors to the upper doors open up to the lofted space, and between the two bunk beds, one can descend the loft on a plastic slide (which could have something to do with the slide stolen from College Green Park last month). Eight different TVs are mounted on the wall across from the doors, and in front of them sit four couches, two stacked on top of the other two. Four fridges and four body-length mirrors are also stacked on top of each other.

Cosmetic changes have been made as well. String lights criss-cross the room and a disco ball has been installed on the ceiling. Whatever the floors of Burge are made out of has been removed and replaced with the linoleum in Menards that you can slide on in your shoes. One wall has a mural of middle class white men and women, to represent the diversity of the state of Iowa. The remaining walls are covered with posters, signs and fliers that were either stolen, free, or both.

When asked where they got the materials for all of this, art major Candace Reed said, “A combination of sources, really. River got the supplies for the loft from the Engineering Machine Shop. Tommy has rich parents- he’s from the suburbs of Chicago, you know- so they bought us the TVs and couches. Jane and Alex just had a bunch of axes in their dorm for some unknown reason, so they took out the walls and floors for us.” She declined to comment on where the slide or most of the wall hangings came from, or how they replaced the floor.

English and Creative writing major Alana Jacobson told us that, while she was concerned about the destruction of property lawsuit, it was not the worst of her worries. “I was hoping to hide this from my parents,” she explained, “but I can’t. They’re super mad. I told them I didn’t think sharing a room with men and non-binary people was that big of a deal, but they refuse to accept it.”

Business major Jack Jacks seemed even more unconcerned about the lawsuit. “We did what we did,” he explained, “and if they really don’t like it, we can undo it.”

Despite the lawsuit against them, the octet did win the amazing room contest, and will be given $200 Amazon gift cards each, which they will have to report on their tax forms. For those hoping to follow in their footsteps, take caution: the University had to take out a loan for the additional $1,200 in gift cards they hadn’t planned on handing out, and will thus be enforcing stricter rules next year.