When Matt Henkes moved into Maple Hall, he knew there were no restrictions on the amount of electronic equipment each student could bring. So he brought his computer, printer, stereo, DVD player and TV, not to mention his alarm clock and electric razor.

“We can bring anything we want here, except halogen lamps,” said Henkes, sophomore in computer engineering.

But students’ love for electronic and technological equipment is a far cry from what ISU students used to be allowed to have in their dorm rooms, said Darryl Knight, associate director of residence halls.

“Most of the buildings are under-wired for what the normal student brings now,” he said. “As little as 25 years ago, students couldn’t even have popcorn makers in their rooms.”

Many upgrades have been made in the past several years in an effort to increase power loads to the buildings, but not all facilities have been updated. Some buildings in the old part of Richardson Court Association, including Lyon and Oak-Elm Halls, have such undersized trunk lines, or power lines, that they aren’t even able to carry air conditioning.

Another problem with some of the RCA halls is rooms often share circuits.

“If you don’t know your neighbor has on their TV, radio, computer and hair dryer, and you turn [something] on in your room, you can trip the breaker,” Knight said.

Although the breakers are designed to prevent an electrical fire, they can cause headaches.

“We’ve had [problems] a couple of times on our floor,” said Kristina Friedrichsen, sophomore in animal science and resident of Willow Hall. “Three rooms were once vacuuming and using their radios, TVs and lights all at the same time.”

Some residence halls, such as Wilson and Wallace, have special equipment to prevent breakers from constantly tripping, Knight said. The refrigerators in the halls are designed to stop running while the microwave is on, reducing the risk of a power overload to the system.

Personal computer use has also increased dramatically during the last few years, which has led to some problems in residence halls.

“Ten years ago, students with computers were rare,” Knight said. “Now it’s rare not to have one.”

David Aves, systems analyst for the residence halls, said an overload in Internet usage has caused the entire system to slow down for all users.

“We were purchasing more bandwidth,” Aves said. “But with the budget constraints, we just can’t continue to increase the size.”

Much of the problem is students who use the Internet frequently and clog it for everyone else, Aves said. The university is looking at ideas to ease the overload, but doesn’t currently have a solid plan.

Henkes said he noticed how much the Internet’s speed was dependent on the number of users when he came back from Thanksgiving break early.

“It worked much faster when nobody was here,” he said.

Friedrichsen said she’s never had a problem with the speed of the Internet in the residence halls.

“I think it’s decent,” she said. “Compared to my house, it works better.”