The peculiar sight of a red and white camping tent meets visitors to the common area of Brevard dorm room 208.
The tent’s proud owner, junior Sean McCleary, first conceived of the novel room-alternative when he learned that he was to be denied his “single” for the semester.
“I decided right then that if I wasn’t going to be given a room of my own, then I would just make one,” he said.
Although, to most, the thought of living in a tent in college might seem unusual, Sean holds no such reservations.
In fact, he expresses satisfaction with his decision to exchange the security of a room for a flap of fabric.
With his queen-sized air mattress and a set of satin sheets, he says he is certainly not lacking for comfort.
“I have all the best aspects of a single as far as bare necessities,” McCleary said, “A TV and furniture would just be unnecessary luxuries.”
Although by-and-large a success, McCleary says the tent experiment has not been without its pitfalls.
For one thing, his airbed has been punctured and deflated numerous times. He says he is on his third mattress this semester.
“The first one was already patched because we used it to float down the river back home in Montana,” he explained.
“The second was punctured by a girl who crawled inside to have a look and tore the plastic with her heels. Spiky heels are definitely a big hazard,” McCleary cautioned to future tent tourists.
The unfortunate result of frequent mishaps is that at one point in the semester McCleary was waking up every two hours to utilize an air pump.
“I’m sure it wasn’t fun for him either,” commented suite-mate Thomas Lizza.
“But it seemed every time we’d be drifting to sleep there would be a whooshing hurricane in the common room.”
The McCleary tent is fast becoming a celebrated landmark on the map of local UT entertainment.
Friends and strangers alike frequently visit the room to get a glimpse of the unique arrangement.
“Everyone always talks about putting a tent up in their common room,” remarked junior Nick Theobald.
“As far as I know, Sean is the first person to have actually done it.”
Would he do it again in future semesters? McCleary’s answer was a confident, “Yes.”
Jeff Palmer can be reached at jpalmer@spartans.ut.edu.