Bare necessities: parents may balk, but schools say amenities are a must. (Update).

You can admire the new bathtubs--replete with bubbling jets--at Michigan State University's renovated Shaw Hall. Just don't call them hot tubs; that irks administrators. Earlier press coverage of Shaw Hall's $12 million renovation gave the impression that MSU (housing a 17,000-student population) was overfly indulging its students. In follow-up interviews, university spokesmen played down the dorm's new tubs, modular furniture, and Internet connections for every resident. Students are not sitting around in hot tubs watching TV, they insisted. No, they aren't. But they are arriving at MSU and campuses across the country expecting lifestyle amenities, while tuition-paying parents wonder if the comforts are necessary.

They are, say the schools, which are not only in competition for student enrollment, but for student residency. There's been a real need to create more comfortable dorms and campuses, says Gary Schwarzmueller, executive director of the Association of College and University Housing Officers (www.acuho.ohio-state.edu.), who points to the "push to have a complete media package for every student: voice mail, cable, and Internet hookup." But it's not just tubs and media packages. Expect to see more sights like the new climbing rock at Baylor University (TX). The "rock" is a way for Baylor to say it's an adventurous and fun place to be, explains Kim Scott, Director of Campus Recreation. It is also, not surprisingly, a mandatory stop on the campus tour.