Texas Princess,
I am neither a lawyer nor a law student, but I have managed to get out of leases before AND get my deposit back. In my case, the apartment was falling apart -- appliances constantly malfunctioned, the plumbing constantly backed up, etc. The final straw was that the air conditioner had broken almost a dozen times in the time I lived there, and the landlord would send someone in to do a temporary repair, but it would take days to fix and then it would break again. It was 100 degrees in my apartment, and since I have bad seasonal allergies, I couldn't leave the windows open.
From the moment I moved into my apartment, I documented everything that went wrong. I kept a lengthy running list of all of the problems I had, the dates they occurred, the response from the landlord, etc. I also took photos of my thermostat which showed that it was, in fact, 100 degrees in my apartment.
When I finally gave up and wanted out, I had months left on my lease. I had also been without air conditioning in July for nearly three weeks. I took the photos and my documentation to my landlord and explained (politely) that I found the situation intolerable and would like to move out, with my deposit returned. Luckily, she agreed.
So document EVERYTHING that you've had problems with. If you had to buy stuff to kill the bugs in your room, include that as well as costs you incurred because the residence hall staff did not respond to your complaints. If you can remember which staff people you complained to, include that as well. If you can present a detailed list of all the problems you've had and what you did to try to fix them, it gives your complaints much more credence. Definitely check with that law professor too to see if he has any advice. And go over your residence hall housing contract with a fine toothed comb to see if there are any reasons listed for allowing students to leave the dorms. There may be something in the fine print that you've missed.
To the Residence Hall person who posted here -- if a student discovers he or she is severely allergic to something in the residence halls (I don't know what, but perhaps mold growing in the walls or carpets of an older building or something like that) and has documentation from an allergist about the health problems, he or she ought to be released from the housing contract. I can't believe you'd hold someone to a lease when they had no way of knowing that the building would make them sick!!!
Good luck TexasPrincess!!!