First-years start petition to show their annoyance with construction at Ehringhaus

Roof replacement at Ehringhaus Residence Hall has been going on for more than a month, and the ruckus of construction is causing some annoyance for residents.

First-year Hannah Dove started a petition to send to University administrators in hopes of improving their situation by raising awareness of the residents’ discontent with the noise and other issues filtering through their windows.

“The petition will hopefully make our voices and concerns heard,” Dove said.

“We don’t think it’s fair for us to be paying the same amount of money for our rooms if we can’t be in it Monday through Friday from eight to sundown.”

Dove said she and her roommate are woken up early by the sounds of construction on the roof and can’t sleep or study in their rooms all day.

She said dirt falling from the roof has landed in their air conditioning unit, getting into the room.

“We went door to door, posted on Facebook and just made people aware that we have a petition if they want to sign,” Dove said.

She said there was no notice of the construction when she signed up to live in Ehringhaus, and if she had known the roof was going to be replaced during the year, she would not have chosen to live there.

Nathan Fold, another Ehringhaus resident, said he did not sign the petition because the noise hasn’t affected him living on the second floor.

“It has been noisy sometimes and I’ve heard a lot of complaints from my friends who live on the sixth floor,” Fold said.

Ehringhaus resident Julia Slawek said she and her roommate both signed the petition.

“I’ve experienced being woken up at 8 a.m. to the sound of hammering after staying up late doing homework, which is frustrating because I don’t have class until 11 a.m., so I’m losing sleep,” Slawek said. “I’m on the fourth floor so I probably have it better than the people on the sixth floor, but it’s still annoying.”

Slawek said she wasn’t sure why the construction was not done over the summer.

First-year Laura Killian said she also signed the petition because the construction has been affecting her sleeping and studying.

Killian said she doesn’t keep her blinds open because she feels she doesn’t have privacy with the people going up and down the ladder outside her room.

“I also prefer studying in my room, but I have not since construction started,” Killian said. “It is difficult to study when there is constant banging and drilling until the evening each day.”

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