I've noticed that college students, especially girls, love to be loud. They love to talk, laugh, sing and blast music. I am a girl. I like to do all of the above as well.
However, there is a time and place for everything, and dorm quiet hours are not the time to be loud.
Let me say first, I don't know that most students are even aware that dorms have quiet hours. But as far as I've noticed, 1 p.m. is no different than 1 a.m. in terms of how much noise people make. Actually, 1 p.m. is a lot quieter than one in the morning.
Enforcement of these so-called quiet hours is nonexistent. Understandably, the RAs don't want to be the bad guy. They have no desire to knock on a door at midnight and ask the residents to stop having such a good time. But what happens when the good time is being had in the middle of the hallway?
If the RAs and RDs are going to tell residents on the first day of the quarter that quiet hours exist, then they must enforce them. Otherwise, people who like to go to bed early are under the assumption that they will be able to sleep in quiet.
I've lost count of the number of times I've been woken up from a peaceful sleep to someone screaming in the hallway or a guy from the third floor serenading the girl next door with his guitar. Not to mention all the times I haven't even been able to fall asleep because of the above reasons.
Is it so absurd that I prefer to go to bed before two in the morning, that I become cranky if I don't get eight hours of sleep and that I actually get up and go to my early classes? I've walked into the hall at midnight and asked people if they would be quiet, and I get a sure
whatever and a laugh, like it's ridiculous I'd even consider going to bed that early.
And all of this is only on the weekdays. The weekends are a different story. And by weekends, I mean Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
Although some students may act as if every night is the weekend by drinking themselves silly and then letting the whole floor know just how drunk they are, it gets worse on the actual weekends.
On the weekends, instead of these people stumbling home at 1 or 2 a.m., they come home around 3 or 4 a.m. And they make sure everyone knows they just had an amazing night. Granted, it is the weekend. But that doesn't mean people aren't trying to sleep.
A couple weekends ago, I was awoken from a peaceful slumber to a young man yelling in the hallway for a girl to wake up and let him into her room. When I stumbled out to ask him to stop screaming, he was standing in the hallway in nothing but boxers. Now, why did this attract my attention, but not the attention of the RA?
I'm not criticizing people for having a good time. This is college. The point of college is to have a good time and get an education. But when some students having a good time hinders the education of other students (who are trying to sleep or study), then there is a problem.
Is it too much to ask for my fellow dorm residents to have some consideration and respect for other people? Just because they party seven days a week and skip half their classes doesn't mean that everyone does. And is it too much for the RAs to do the job they're supposed to do and enforce the rules that have been established?
Karie Spaetzel is a sophomore journalism major and a copy editor for The Post. Send her an e-mail at ks338504@ohiou.edu. 17
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