Reforms aim to mitigate construction woes

Officials from the housing department and residents of the Lawrence Apartments met on Tuesday night to discuss the ongoing construction occurring near the graduate housing complex, but some questions were left unanswered.

Earlier this month, seven graduate students who live in the Lawrence 13 building sent the housing department a letter of complaint about the noise level outside their apartments.

Since October, Springdale Golf Course, which runs adjacent to campus, has been expanding its southern end.

Students complained that the loud construction often began at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. and covered everything in the vicinity with a fine layer of dust.

Six administrators were on hand at Tuesday's meeting to provide students with the schedule of construction, which will last until the spring of 2007.

"They had been planning on doing more construction to fix sewer and electrical lines, but they hit more rocks than expected. I think the crew did not think about the students living there," Nathan Wozny GS, who lives in the complex, said.

"It had to be done, though," he added.

The 400 graduate students who live in the Lawrence complex were invited to attend the meeting, but no more than 20 showed up.

"The email I received was sent four days in advance, but some students said they had never heard about it," Wozny said.

"We received [the email] over spring break, so it may have been lost."

Among the promises made to students were that the start of construction each day would be delayed to 8 a.m., construction would cease during the exam period and students would have the option of moving out of the buildings closest to the construction site.

"I saw [one of the administrators] outside at around seven o'clock in the morning [on Wednesday] making sure that there was no construction going on," Wozny said.

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Wozny was also pleased with the change in the room draw process for next year. Usually, graduate students can expect to live in the same apartment for more than one year, but housing has promised to accommodate most requests for dorm changes.

There were no guarantees, however, that Lawrence 13 would be vacant next year.

Lawrence 13 residents live the closest to the construction.

"I have the feeling that it's going to be next year's first year [graduate] students [who will be living in Lawrence 13]," Wozny said.

Overall, though, students and administrators said they were satisfied with the discussion.

"There was a positive feeling," Patricia Smith, associate director of housing operations, said.

"There's not much more that they could be doing," Wozny said.

While residents of Lawrence 13 are seeking compensation for the noise level they have experienced, Andrew Kane, director of housing, said that no decisions had yet been made and that it was uncommon for the University to provide compensation.

"There is still no explanation as to why we did not know earlier [about the noise]," Wozny said. "In all the landlords I have ever dealt with, I have never had so much information withheld from me without any compensation."

Housing will soon post a transcript of the meeting on the Lawrence Committee website for the graduate students who were unable to attend the meeting.