Quiet building alternative

Just like years past, students will continue to have the option of selecting a quiet floor when making their housing choice. For several years now, the Department of Residential Life has offered this alternative "lifestyle choice." ResLife is correct to offer students a variety of special interest housing choices. For the coming year, floors with special interest will include quiet floors, substance-free floors, honors housing and academic clusters. According to ResLife, having a sundry of housing alternatives will provide "returning students unique living options based on a mutual interest." A demand does exist for academic clusters and special interests. However, living among students of a different major is advantageous in that being around different people exposes students to new ideas and a diverse background. But, some students do wish to live with students from their major so they can learn more about their field while socializing with people of similar interests. Since special interest housing is voluntary, it is a great program for students to live with similar minded peers. One of the "lifestyle choices" offered by ResLife, which is many times under-appreciated is quiet housing. Next year, students will be given the opportunity to choose quiet housing in Towers and North Campus. This year in Towers, the entire building of Beecher/Vinton was designated as being quiet housing. Such an opportunity is an excellent choice for students who wish to have a quiet atmosphere to study in. Hopefully, the tradition of offering an entire building as quiet will persist long into the future since several tangible benefits exist. While offering a quiet floor is a good idea, it is much more advantageous to offer an entire building as quiet. If the entire building is quiet, as is so in Towers, the study lounges are quiet lounges. In addition, noise does not permeate through the floors or ceilings, thus providing the students living in the hall with the quiet atmosphere they were expecting. While many students are familiar with quiet hours, most students are not familiar with the policy governing quiet floors. For the current academic year, those floors designated as quiet floors have 24 hour quiet rules in place. Under such rules, students living in the area should never be able to hear the music of a neighbor through the walls or through a closed door. If noise can be heard, residents can request the noise level be turned down and resident assistants can write up those residents violating quiet rules at any time of the day. Most students reading this column are probably thinking that such an idea is extremely insipid. Such an option is not appropriate for all students, but to a select minority of students on campus, quiet housing is apropos to their lifestyles. Quiet housing allows students to have a place where they can seriously study for classes. Students living in such housing do not need to be bothered with traveling to the library to get some quiet to complete their work. Instead, students live in a noise-free environment, where papers and readings can be completed in the dorm room or in a quiet study lounge. Additionally, having 24 hour quiet rules creates several tangible side effects. Fast-paced college life results in the need for a periodic power-nap throughout the course of a week. Such naps are possible at all hours of the day on quiet floors, where students do not need to worry about obnoxious bass vibrations. Those students who decide to live on a quiet floor are mostly serious academic students who need quiet to study. Such a similarity seems to create mutual feelings of respect and friendship. Rumors have always circulated through campus that Residential Life is going to eliminate having an entire building on campus designated as quiet due to declining demand. However, eliminating an all-quiet building would be unfortunate and irresponsible. Quiet housing provides students with great academic opportunities. The fact of the matter is that a demand for quiet housing does exist. This demand is evidenced by the fact that many of the upperclassmen living in Towers are residents of the quiet building. In addition, several students spend all four years living in the quiet building, despite the fact it is in predominantly freshman-dominated Towers. The fact these students commit all four years of their academic career to living in Towers when they could move to much more luxurious housing is living proof of the fact that something special exists in the quiet building of Beecher/Vinton. As a case study in the demand for quiet housing, the second floor of Vinton Hall is a perfect example. The second floor currently houses 18 students. In what is supposed to be a predominantly freshman area, 11 of these students are not freshmen and have lived in this area for more than just this year. Nine of these students have lived in the quiet dorm for more than one year. Four students have lived on this floor for three years. One student has even resided on this floor for all four of his years. Without adding those freshmen choosing to live in a quiet building, 11 of the 18 students clearly wanted to live in designated quiet housing. The reason so many students want to live in quiet housing for their entire career is because it creates something truly special. It is an excellent environment for students to succeed academically as several Babbidge, New England, and Nutmeg Scholars have been past residents of the quiet building. With any luck, the tradition of having an entire quiet building on this campus will persist into the future. In addition to offering such a building, the resident assistants assigned to such a building will hopefully continue to foster a quiet atmosphere by enforcing and promoting the compliance of the quiet rules. Those students having lived in the quiet building before know that it is truly special. They also know that it is not appropriate for everyone. Sources: Residential Life http://www.reslife. uconn.edu