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Morrison, Driscoll Hall residents face construction inconveniences
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Crash. Bang. Slam. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Before the sun lazily ascends the horizon every day, Morrison
and Driscoll Hall residents can expect to hear a few of these
intense reverberations in their rooms. Sometimes, students are
jarred out of bed with particularly loud commotion, but most of
them have just gotten used to it.
What was once an emerald sea of grass is now a mere field of
dirt, mixed with rocks, sticks, fences and random splashes of
weeds. The walk to Morrison, once an easy promenade from Driscoll,
forces a detour near Chaffee Hall.
Last week, Student Housing promised an easier path, but no such
luck has been had: the path is still nonexistent.
With the construction of the new residence halls surrounding
Morrison and Driscoll, inconveniences ranging from the lack of air
conditioning, to rooms reeking of exhaust have been prevalent.
“I think it’s frustrating for people who live in the
buildings now,” said Sally Zenner, a senior and health
science major. She also resides in Driscoll Hall. “But
it’ll [the new halls] provide an opportunity for new
students,” she continued.
During September, air conditioning was shut off. According to
Student Housing Director Craig Thompson, the construction managers
wanted the air conditioning turned off much earlier, but Thompson
asked that it be turned off at a later date, when the weather was
predicted to be cooler.
Unfortunately, temperatures soared the very next week during the
unseasonably warm September. Residents complained of the heat in
their rooms, but there was little anybody could do once the cooling
mechanism was gone.
Even worse, an additional heat wave surrounded the region just
last week, causing temperatures to reach 87 degrees Oct. 22. While
not a record (1992 holds that distinction with a whopping 94
degrees), buildings were hot. Add about 10 degrees, and
you’ve got the average temperature of a room at noon that
day.
One resident in Driscoll had posted on the dry erase board on
her door, “It’s so hot, my toes are
sweating!”
Despite the heat, the construction crews have been instructed to
work with residents’ studies in mind. However, crews often
hang around the windows near the sides of the buildings during
breaks, sharing somewhat flavorful stories about women and crime
with one another.
And to add one more problem to the list unrelated to the
construction, the dorms were infected by the Blaster and Welchia
worms (virus-like computer files), causing the network to cease
functioning for an entire day and remain slow for the week
following.
In an effort to compensate for these problems, residents
received a $75 per semester reimbursement for their troubles at the
beginning of the semester. Furthermore, residents in Morrison and
Driscoll will have first “dibs” on the new halls, set
to open in the fall of next year.
Once the construction is completed in the spring, grass again
will cover the dirt, and in between the new halls and the old halls
will be a pseudo-park. Until then, the panicked 6 a.m. leap out of
bed at the sound of construction crews begin their work will remain
the Morrison and Driscoll norm.
Amy Olsen
News Reporter
The Arbiter
