After several days of construction noise that one visiting professor said sent her home with her eardrums reverberating, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask decided last week to pause drilling for Perkins Library renovations during class hours.
When preparing for the massive renovation and expansion of Perkins Library earlier this semester, officials recognized that construction work would be loud and disruptive, but promised to be attentive to student and faculty concerns if the noise became unbearable. Those working in the Languages Building, which sits right next to one of the construction sites, said they were pleased with the administration's quick reaction to a noise problem created last week by drilling during class hours.
Becky Hayes, staff assistant in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature, which is housed in the Languages Building, said last week's noise raised a number of concerns among faculty and staff in the department.
"The first few days it did get really loud when they were drilling through the rock, and holding class was almost impossible," Hayes said. "In this office, I couldn't even hear the phone ring and I knew I certainly wouldn't be able to talk to anyone if I answered anyway."
Since then, construction workers have continued work but have not created any more problems in the classroom, Hayes said. "They were out working all day today," she said. "We can hear them, but there's no drilling, so it's really nothing."
Associate Professor of Romance Studies Teresa Vilaros also noted the disruption that took place early last week. "It's a good thing the deans stopped the noise so quickly," she said. "Otherwise it would have been impossible to maintain a class' attention, and even to maintain your sanity."
Although a number of faculty and staff called to complain about the noise, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences William Chafe said he took his own initiative in investigating the noise.
"We could hear the construction noise from a distance and we wanted to see what it was like inside the building," he said. "We went over there and visited and heard the cacophony and realized that, 'This is impossible.' We then went to Dr. Trask and asked him to take action, which he did."
Vilaros said she was pleased with administrators' decision to hear the disruption in person. "The noise started and the deans came, saw it was bad and reacted," she said. "I was very happy to see that they came down here because the noise immediately stopped."
Chafe added that the delayed drilling should not set back the timeline for the first phase of library renovations, which began over spring break and could be completed by March 2006.
Some faculty members expressed concern about future noise problems as library renovations inevitably move forward.
"Eventually this whole yard is going to become a building site," said Paol Keineg, associate research professor of romance studies, indicating the area directly outside his window. "I have a few questions about future construction, but at least last week's problem was corrected quickly."
Chafe said officials are in the process of reassessing when and how the University will handle construction in the future. "We want to make sure it doesn't subvert the educational enterprise," he said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.