Letter: Student discusses night noise issue

09/10/08 - To the Cigar, I come back every year to school to hear something drastically different from home. It's the sheer level of noise that I hear.

Normally in the summer, I'd wake to an alarm clock or a TV in a relatively quiet place. The thing I've most missed is that quintessential peace.

A campus is a community and what I have no idea about is why people insist on playing music, screaming, and generally being obnoxious at all hours of the night and day.

Day is more forgivable. I'm not expecting campus to be a retirement home in the least. It wouldn't be college without the parties, events on the Quadrangle or games at the Ryan Center.

No, what I'm referring to is the juxtaposition of "quiet hours" to noise. While some parts of campus die down after dark, some parts decidedly do not.

What I'm sick of hearing is bass resonating from cars that shakes my floor two levels up.

What I can't stand are people yelling to each other from less than 3 yards away past 11 p.m.

And what I absolutely can't fathom is hearing someone else's music resonating through your own headphones when you're trying to block it out.

I shouldn't be able to hear your entire song three floors up and nor should the pounding baseline be a borderline massage at 3 a.m.

Out of curiosity, how do some people even stand music that loud? I would ask if you cared that your eardrums are eventually going to rupture, but it just seems not.

It's not even just music. I've heard people setting off firecrackers and fireworks at 1:30 a.m.

I hear slamming doors constantly around me, so much that I'm considering writing my own musical canon to the sound of these doors.

And God forbid you keep your mouth shut at 2 a.m. when others are trying to sleep.

Sleep, there's another novel concept.

Some of us actually try to attempt it between 12 a.m. and 7 a.m. It gets hard when you have a different disturbance every hour, almost on the hour, to contend with.

I doubt there's been a time when, on campus, anybody reading this hasn't complained that someone should turn down music, or whatever. It's the same past 11 p.m.

Why is it so hard to be a bit quieter? In between the noise coming in from all sides, I'm seriously becoming nocturnal.

For anyone trying to study, it's not exactly a welcome disruption.

Yes, the library is for studying but no one can live in there. Dorms are meant to be inhabited. And when anyone eventually settles down at night, warm in their bed, it's a safe bet that the last thing they want to hear is someone loudly conversing about anything from friends to classes, or someone's stereo getting a workout on a song easily considered past the decibel strength of a jet engine.

Seriously?

Aside from being totally rude and disruptive, and shooting the ideas of quiet hours in the hole, it also seems like a perfect social experiment.

Do it long enough and find at least five people who want to you stop. All I'm asking is for a little consideration. Just turn it down a bit after ten. Then stop and listen for the sound of silence.

It's a welcome change.





Lauren Morito