'Coolest rooms' take top awards

A rubber duck shower curtain drapes across their dorm room window, "My Little Pony" dolls are organized on a desk shelf and Care Bear posters, drawings and dolls are strewn across the room. The L-shaped bunk beds have matching comforters and sheets of rubber duckies and Care Bears. This room is not only the epitome of 1980s cartoons, but hours worth of hard work.\n"Nobody else has this stuff," said freshman Julia Cuzzupe, grand prize winner of the "Coolest Room Contest," sponsored by Residential Programs and Services. "We spent 10 to 15 hours total on the room, with an additional five hours the night before the judging."\nSome of the features in the room include Strawberry Shortcake and Smurf posters, a Care Bears stool and a rubber ducky collection lined up on top of the television set.\n"We pretty much combined our pony and duck collections," freshman Jenny Lockridge said.\nCuzzupe said the room gives her and Lockridge something most college students don't have.\n"(The room) really feels like home," Cuzzupe said. "It reminds me that I still have a child in me."\nTheir prizes include a $150 Bed, Bath and Beyond gift certificate and a mention in future RPS publications.\nRPS graduate assistant Katherine Bryant organized the contest, which has been running for about four years.\n"The RPS office staff does a lot for this contest along with graduate assistants and graduate students living in the residence halls and the admissions office," Bryant said.\nAs for the judging, 23 volunteers were used from various departments of the University, including RPS and the admissions office.\n"Creativity and originality are two of the things I especially look for in a cool room," said Geoffrey Cashman, one of the judges. "With so many designing shows on today, people can get a lot of good ideas in how to make their rooms look really cool, and do it on a small budget."\nCashman, who has been judging the contest for three years, also said he has had a couple favorites in the past few years.\n"The two coolest rooms I saw were one last year that was heavily influenced by Paris and had a piano in it, and one this year that was a mix of Asian influences and it felt very much like you walked into a Mongolian Yurt (a domed nomad's tent)," Cashman said.\nBryant, who was also a judge for the contest, said there were many things to consider when picking the winners.\n"Appearance, making sure it's clean, creativity and style are all things that I look for while judging," Bryant said. "Also, we need to make sure that (the participants) are not using things that aren't allowed."\nStudents were informed of the contest through fliers and In-Touch e-mails, which are weekly RPS newsletters sent out to students who live in residence halls. Also, word of mouth among students played a large role in the contests' popularity.\nSophomore Catherine Orzel, a first place winner of the contest, was informed of the event by other residents on her floor who felt she had a shot at winning the contest. Orzel made no additional changes to her room after being informed the contest existed.\n"I put a lot of myself into this room," said Orzel, a resident of Willkie Quad. "I have different themes on different walls of my room. I have a black and white wall, an inspirational wall with quotes on it and my biggest wall has Broadway posters on it like 'Hairspray' and 'Grease.' My room is very bright and inviting. It all just really puts me in a good mood and it really feels like home."\nOf the 218 rooms judged for the contest, one set of grand prize winners and 15 first place winners were decided. Besides the Bed, Bath and Beyond gift certificate, other prizes included IU Auditorium tickets for first place winners and $10 IU Bookstore gift certificates for runners-up. All participants involved received a free T-shirt.