Construction of the chapel at Holy Cross House has raised some complaints from residents. Some are complaining the construction begins too early in the morning, waking residents up early.
In residences, such as Holy Cross, quiet hours run from 10:00 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. on weekdays. However construction crews are beginning their construction as early as 8:30 a.m.
“I live in Holy Cross House, and some mornings I have been woken up because of construction,” said Rachel Slipp, one of many residents concerned about the noise. “I have also been disturbed during the afternoon and evenings when I am trying to read or study because of what is taking place in the chapel.”
The noise from construction is also disturbing the classes that take place in Holy Cross.
“My GRID class takes place in HCH Room 5, which is directly below the construction and it has been interrupted by the noise,” said Slipp. “The class is discussion-based, and we never know when the drilling or hammering will take place. It will suddenly begin without warning while the professors or students are trying to make a point. In a class of that style, it’s very important to listen and to be able to be able to hear what others are saying, but that’s hard when construction is taking place directly above you.”
In a Live and Learn Workshop put on by Student Services, Roxann Morin discusses’ the importance of sleep on a student’s academic success.
“A lack of sleep has a direct correlation to how much stress a college student can handle on a regular basis” said Morin.
“Lack of sleep has a huge effect on my academic life” said Emily DesRoches, another concerned Holy Cross resident. “When I am tired I don’t feel prepared for my day. Lack of sleep is inevitable when you are a student. The extra noise taking away from my hours of sleep definitely hurts that, it makes me feel stressed out, run down and sick.”
Jeffery Carleton, director of communications at STU, tried to address some of the concerns of the students at Holy Cross.
“We found that the construction crews were starting at about 8:00 a.m. in the morning” said Carleton. “Once we received a number of complaints from the RA in Holy Cross that it was too noisy at 8:00 a.m., we did have the construction crews start at 10:00 a.m. and go until 5:00 p.m. Sometimes they went a bit later, and sometimes they started earlier. We asked them to do that, for the most part they respected that but there were occasions after September where they were starting too early. A contractor wouldn’t get the word, or someone new would get assigned to the project so facilities actually went up to Holy Cross a few times and had the construction crews stop until 10:00 a.m. in the morning.”
“It’s frustrating because if the project had been finished before we arrived it wouldn’t be an issue,” said DesRoches.
