With University construction of the Living Learning Center and the expansion and renovation of the Student Health Center, some students living on campus are adjusting to the sound of cranes, cement trucks and construction workers.
“After you stay up late studying you really just want to sleep,” said Dan Williams, a freshman environmental studies major and resident of Morton Hall. “This morning I couldn’t sleep because it sounded like there was someone banging right outside my window.”
University Housing purchased enough earplugs to last through the construction period, and students who are bothered by noise have been instructed to pick up a pair from the area desk in Carson Hall.
Mike Eyster, assistant vice president for student affairs and director of housing, hasn’t received one complaint about the LLC construction since fall classes started.
“Most of the calls I get now are students and parents who are really excited about it,” Eyster said. “People want to know how to get in there for next year.”
Eyster said that most of the noisy work was finished during the summer, and most of the LLC is “dried-in” and ready for construction during the rainy season.
“Periodically we will have to start earlier than 8 a.m.,” Eyster said. “We encourage students living in the halls to check the LLC Web site for updates, and fliers will also be posted in the halls to warn students of an earlier start.”
Other students, like Lauren Taylor, another resident of Morton Hall, aren’t too bothered by the noise.
Taylor, whose room is adjacent to the LLC weekday construction, said that while she hears her share of “screechy” noise, it doesn’t really bother her.
“It really feels just like part of getting used to my new life here,” Taylor said. “Just like adjusting to a new shower, new group of neighbors. I have new sounds that I hear all the time. I think I have really tuned it out.”
Students moving into the residence halls aren’t officially notified of the construction noise before signing their contracts, but for students like Blake Locher, a resident of the Honors Hall in McAlister Hall, it’s not an issue.
“If you went to orientation, you saw the new construction,” the freshman psychology student said.
Sophomore Danielle Marston said the noise is “only a problem when you want to open the windows and you can’t because there’s too much noise.”

Carson resident Sarah Christ has grown accustomed to the noise.
“I thought it was going to be a lot worse, but after I moved in, it’s really not that bad,” Christ said.
For updates on the LLC construction, are available at housing.uoregon.edu/construction.

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