As a resident of Helser residence hall, I have been living with the noise following the construction of the new resident suites for a while now. At the start of the semester we were told that all students living in Helser this year would be given first option to move into the new building, which is supposed to be done by next fall.

Suddenly the university changed that decision, and decided that the new building would house 75 percent incoming freshmen and 25 percent upper-class students from all over the campus.

This noise has bothered students living in Helser this year, especially those who have a window facing the construction site. The incessant noise starts at 7 a.m. and goes on until 5 p.m., which makes studying in your room hard during these hours. But still the university has not taken any incentive to compensate for this. Iowa State’s motto, “becoming the best,” is hard to live up to when you have to listen to this annoying noise ten hours a day, and therefore you are “forced” to go somewhere else to do your studying during the day.

I find the university’s decision to mainly allow incoming freshmen to live in the new building unfair since we who are living in Helser this year have had to put up with this never-ending noise. We should get some kind of consolation for constantly being disturbed in our study environment, and therefore I think, as first promised, that Helser residents should be given first option to live in the new residence hall.

Bjornar Holmen

Freshman

Computer Science