2008 Woodie Awards
An Earful From Wagner
Resident Decries Construction Noise
Sarah Bryant
Issue date: 10/13/04 Section: Opinion
Instead of waking up to the buzzing of an alarm clock like most college students, I am forced to wake up at 7:30 AM to the extremely boisterous noise of a huge truck backing up, or the sudden and extreme vibration of the entire Wagner house because of the incessant digging outside my window. Usually, I can deal with the inconveniences of construction - but not when it wakes me up at 7:30 in the morning after I have gotten only five hours of quality sleep!
Of course, the earplugs the administration plans to hand out would somewhat dull the annoyance of these horrid sounds, but who wants to sleep with earplugs? I'm sure that they aren't the most comfortable things to put on before falling asleep.
In addition, how are we supposed to hear our alarms in the morning if the earplugs are as effective as the administration hopes them to be? Besides, only Wagner floors one and three will receive them, since they are the "Quiet Floors" (although the people whom I know and love dearly on floor one aren't the quietest).
I really do not appreciate the fact that the administration believes that only the "quiet floors" need a good night's rest. Even though they are quiet floors, they agreed as a hall to respect a twenty-four-hour common courtesy policy, as did halls two and four. As a member of the second floor, I, along with everyone else, sadly do not receive a pair of these sound-dulling earplugs.
Although students from Wagner halls one and three complained of the noise issue at the Sept. 27 Campus Conversation, the administration should have been insightful enough to assume that Wagner halls two and four ought to have been offered the earplugs as well.
Instead of treating the symptom, Goucher's administration should be treating the overlying illness. Construction should begin at the time of the first class, 8:30 AM. Students who are paying for this new facility should not have to endure a lack of sleep and falling grades as a result. Although there is an extremely tight deadline before inclement weather strikes, students should not have to suffer from this rigid schedule.
Another approach, although a bit unrealistic, to dealing with the noise issue in addition to distributing earplugs would be that all Wagner residents, after dealing with these noises for a year, would get the first choice of dorms in the new residence hall.
This would be a nice gesture, since we have had to deal with the construction more than any of the other students. Although everyone, faculty and students alike, at Goucher has been inconvenienced somehow by the construction, I truly believe that the residents of Wagner have been impacted the most. However, since upperclassmen have the first choice of housing and I am only a first year student, that is not a practical dream.
So I am asking the administration, how would you feel if the entire Wagner house came with pots and pans and banged loudly enough to wake you up in the early hours of the morning? I don't think you would appreciate it very much.
Of course, the earplugs the administration plans to hand out would somewhat dull the annoyance of these horrid sounds, but who wants to sleep with earplugs? I'm sure that they aren't the most comfortable things to put on before falling asleep.
In addition, how are we supposed to hear our alarms in the morning if the earplugs are as effective as the administration hopes them to be? Besides, only Wagner floors one and three will receive them, since they are the "Quiet Floors" (although the people whom I know and love dearly on floor one aren't the quietest).
I really do not appreciate the fact that the administration believes that only the "quiet floors" need a good night's rest. Even though they are quiet floors, they agreed as a hall to respect a twenty-four-hour common courtesy policy, as did halls two and four. As a member of the second floor, I, along with everyone else, sadly do not receive a pair of these sound-dulling earplugs.
Although students from Wagner halls one and three complained of the noise issue at the Sept. 27 Campus Conversation, the administration should have been insightful enough to assume that Wagner halls two and four ought to have been offered the earplugs as well.
Instead of treating the symptom, Goucher's administration should be treating the overlying illness. Construction should begin at the time of the first class, 8:30 AM. Students who are paying for this new facility should not have to endure a lack of sleep and falling grades as a result. Although there is an extremely tight deadline before inclement weather strikes, students should not have to suffer from this rigid schedule.
Another approach, although a bit unrealistic, to dealing with the noise issue in addition to distributing earplugs would be that all Wagner residents, after dealing with these noises for a year, would get the first choice of dorms in the new residence hall.
This would be a nice gesture, since we have had to deal with the construction more than any of the other students. Although everyone, faculty and students alike, at Goucher has been inconvenienced somehow by the construction, I truly believe that the residents of Wagner have been impacted the most. However, since upperclassmen have the first choice of housing and I am only a first year student, that is not a practical dream.
So I am asking the administration, how would you feel if the entire Wagner house came with pots and pans and banged loudly enough to wake you up in the early hours of the morning? I don't think you would appreciate it very much.
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