Not having natural light is one of the best way to attack your mental health. This building is just a bad design, and human are not made to live without natural lights.
...and I am working in a warehouse-style building at a Silicon Valley startup. All the windows have been blacked out, to keep the IP safe. It's a little like being inside a Borg Cube.
I wish architects showed the same level of concern for office workers!
Kidding aside... given the size of the bedrooms, I get the impression that the students aren't meant to spend much time there aside from whatever amount of sleep college students are getting these days. The rest of their time would probably be spent in common areas that actually do have sunlight. Recalling my personal experience in college, where most of my time was already spent in common areas anyways, I don't see the lack of bedroom windows as that huge a problem.
This particular dorm design also seems to allow for more privacy than a traditional dorm does.
Modern office buildings have flipped the private offices from the perimeter to the core precisely so that the open office has all the windows. You might not have any privacy or quiet but they do design for natural light now.
Basically forcing people to live in common areas is horrible. Many people find public spaces distracting at best and uncomfortable or worse. Thank God I had my dorm room to escape to where my roommate and I only had to ignore each other to get some peace.
