I am writing because I am fed up. For over a month now, every single night, a crew has been working to tear down the old welding and engineering laboratories right across the street from my dorm. Although I understand that it must be difficult to take on such a project on a busy college campus, I cannot understand whose brilliant idea it was to tear down a building in the middle of the night.I have discussed the reality of this problem with many people, and we are all getting very angry about the fact that it is louder on this campus at 4 a.m. than it is at noon. It seems that it doesn’t matter that there are people living right across the street from the demolition site, only that the job is done as loudly and slowly as possible.Obviously it is impossible to tear down the building during normal daylight hours, when all of the irresponsible college children are running about! Someone might get hurt! No one here is smart enough to avoid heavy machinery and falling debris! Protect the children! And while we’re thinking about it, let’s dash any hope they have of getting a good night’s rest by sending out the garbage trucks and vacuum cleaners at 6 a.m. to announce themselves with incessant beeping and slamming into the doors of those who are pretending that sleep is possible in university housing! I am fed up with this university constantly taking advantage of the fact that we live on their property and pay outrageous fees to live in their shoe box rooms. I am fed up with the fact that I, as a paying resident, seem to have no rights.Although I am not educated in city ordinances, I do know that disturbing the peace is illegal in the real world. Apparently when you live in a dorm you don’t live in the real world; instead you live in some sort of constructed middle ground where demolishing a building at 3 a.m. during finals week and the first week of classes and whenever else you feel like it is permissible.I eagerly await the last day of school this quarter, the last day I will have to live in this hell. I only wish that unsuspecting people who are interested in living on this campus knew about the way students are treated; not as people with rights, but as opportunities to make money.
Amy Juris,sophomoreEnglish/women’s studies