He/She goes to a university where they combined the dresser and bed to save space in the room. That way they can cram you into a broom closet and you'll feel like it's a slightly larger broom closet and be less likely to kill yourself while living there.
I'm with you as far as knowledge of furnishings go and all but no way is that a university age student. Anyway that room is like 2-3 times the size of my college dorm and I didn't even have the combined bed/dresser.