American Notes Los Angeles

Dorm life for most college kids is a study in spartan simplicity. Not for the 270 or so lucky University of Southern California students who, unable to find campus housing, have been temporarily stashed in the fashionable Promenade Towers apartment complex three miles away. Housed two to a room in furnished apartments for $315 a month per student, the undergrads enjoy valet parking, a 24-hour switchboard, a health club, swimming pool, dry cleaner and market. "Just what we needed," exults U.S.C. Housing Director William Thompson.

Regular tenants are not so happy. Three have broken their lease. Said one tenant who intends to move: "They've turned it into a fraternity house." But a businessman whose office overlooks bikini-clad students basking by the swimming pool allows as how he has no complaints.