With only paper-thin walls to separate them, several thousand young people with erratic sleep patterns and disparate music collections are bound to cause some noise. Dorms on the campus' south side especially have the reputation for being loud. As it turns out, students agree that the raucous sounds on south side cause some major noise pollution.
Students can call their building's front desk to lodge noise complaints against loud neighbors. Hannah Ellsworth, a desk receptionist in Letts Hall, says that most noise complaints involve loud music and occur on weeknights after 11 p.m. After a student notifies the front desk, a Resident Assistant contacts the noisy party and tells them to be quiet.
Anderson Hall resident Adam Knobloch, a freshman in the Kogod School of Business, keeps a guitar, a saxophone and a drum set in his room. He has received multiple noise complaints for playing music too loudly. Says Knobloch, "I feel really badly because [music] is my only outlet for stress."
According to Brett Wilson, an RA in Letts Hall, most noise complaints involve students "having a good time and not being aware they're being too loud."
Students may also be the source of noise complaints without actually being involved. Michaela McGill, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences who lives in Letts Hall, received a noise complaint for her room when she was not present. According to McGill, one evening 20 people watched R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" at "an insane volume" in her room, prompting a noise complaint to the front desk.
Some students' noise problems are more unique. Dan Hopkins, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs and an Anderson Hall resident, inhabits a corner room that produces what he refers to as "echo chamber" effects. According to Hopkins, music from his room can be heard six doors away, resulting in several complaints from neighbors. When asked what type of music garnered the most complaints, Hopkins says, "Oddly enough, it's [French electronic band] Air. Air travels through the air."
Outside, the noise pollution turns from the human to the more beastlike. "They're haunting," says Knobloch of the birds that congregate in the trees near Anderson Hall. "It's a constant deafening chirp."
McGill inquired, "Can I make a noise complaint on the birds in the LA Quad?"
Another main source of students' auditory complaints is fire alarms. Mark Doumba, a sophomore in Kogod who lives in Centennial Hall, says of south side's numerous alarms, "I'm over them now, but if we're found in our rooms [during the alarms], we get fined. That's what sucks."
Thomas Crumpton Opalak, a freshman in the School of International Service who must wake up early for ROTC, is also bothered by late night fire alarms. However, Opalak, who lives on a University College floor in Anderson Hall, has also been responsible for creating noise with the help of his floor-mate Colin Shelby, a freshman in SPA. The two received a noise complaint for loudly "blasting Jay-Z," Shelby says.
"We were rocking out," Opalak says, echoing many students' defense for their noise pollution. "The people on our floor were just too square"
