For UNIX & Windows & Mac users in your dorms
OpenAFS
http://www.openafs.org
UNIX
ssh -X (if not default)
Windows
PuTTY
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
SSH client offered by computing services should now be decent
(and supports X tunneling)
How to run remote X stuff (XWin32 without xhost +)
emacs locally
Mac
Comes with X and SSH now, have fun