Historia Universitatis Iassiensis 10, 119–143
Abstract. The study aims to analyse some fundamental directions related to the emergence and evolution of the student dormitories pertaining to the University of Iași during the interwar period. The objectives refer to the reactions of the central institutions to the need to create living conditions for the wave of students coming to the city starting with 1918, the evolution of the meaning of student dormitory and the identification of places where spaces designed to encourage young people to study in Iași. The problem of building several student dormitories came against the background of the crisis incurred by the University even from the phase immediately following the union of Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania. The plans for student dormitories were permanently dependent on the resources that could be provided by the government authorities. For these reasons, the Ministry of Public Instruction became a determining factor in order to remedy the disorders caused by the sudden increase in the number of students enrolled at the oldest Romanian university. However, the financial support came with delays that blocked the activity of the institution. The 1930s brought more changes in the efforts to create living conditions for the students, although not everyone was able to find a place. The option of renting other buildings has been replaced by investments in the University possessions. The existence of student dormitories went through three major phases in the period between the two World Wars. After the University’s attempts to alleviate the crises generated by the increasing waves of students, stage followed aimed to obtain necessary properties to prepare rooms that guarantee the life of young people in Iași. The effects of the economic crisis were visible both in the difficulty of managing the student dormitories and in the impos-sibility of ensuring a place for a large number of students through the construc-tion of new buildings.
