A very quick post: Working on an education-related grant, I’m learning all sort of things about the university, some of which I’d be happier not knowing. Such as: dorm housing costs are very expensive. In a vague sense, I knew this, but I wasn’t actually aware that the on-campus room and board costs are about $11-18k per academic year (9 months)! The numbers are here:
http://housing.uoregon.edu/reshalls/rates/rates2013-14.php
http://housing.uoregon.edu/reshalls/roomtypes.php
For contrast, the monthly cost housing + food + utilities for my family of four in a house in Eugene is at the low end of the UO dorm scale.
Why does it matter? In addition to being stunning in themselves, and much higher than the average off-campus rents in Eugene — see http://www.uomatters.com/2013/09/great-news-for-uo-finances.html — these costs provide a high barrier for low-income students to live on-campus. I would guess that dorm rates are similar at other schools. What drives these high prices? I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader.
The Eighteenth Elephant 
Here at SFU, the rates start at ~$2500/term (4 months), with meal plan a sometimes optional $1500+ /term on top of that. Far cheaper than in Eugene, and more comparable to off-campus housing.
A link to a very short article on “Why College Dorms Cost So Much,” sent by my brother:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrandall/2010/08/12/why-college-dorms-cost-so-much/
Given Nancy’s comment, it would be interesting to know if the appeal of high-end dorms, or their supposed signaling to parents of university quality, applies anywhere outside the U.S.