The door slams next door, two students talk loudly in the hall and the room next door starts blasting their music. These are the sounds of living in a resident hall at Plattsburgh State.
Resident life has put in place a STUDY community for next year. This will provide students with a quieter living situation. Starting in the fall of next year the ninth floor of Moffit will be designated STUDY housing. If there is high demand resident life will expand to the eighth floor as well.
Students have until March 15 to apply for STUDY housing for the 2019 fall semester. Anyone that will be a sophomore and above by the fall can apply. Students have to have had a clean judicial record for a year. Students who already have a roommate have top priority but students who don’t can still apply.
The Assistant Director of Resident Life Jim Sherman came up with the idea because students would come in and complain about the noise in the dorms. A Resident Assistant came to Sherman with the same idea, inspired by a quiet car on trains.
“We had students that would come in and talk about how things were noisy in the resident halls but when you live in a communal atmosphere like a residence hall it’s naturally going to be noisy,” Sherman said. “people walking in the hallway, they’re going to be talking, sometimes the door slams. There are students out there, that can be detrimental to them for one reason or another they need it quiet.”
Samuel Cohen is a transfer student from SUNY Ulster and this was his first year living in the dorms.
“When I saw the opportunity to go with something more student-oriented, I just went with it,” Cohen said.
Cohen found other students on his floor would blast music late at night when he was trying to sleep. Once another suite on the floor put up a speaker to the fire alarm seeing if it would go off late at night.
“I had a test the next day and I did not do great at all, so if I could take that situation out of the equation I would be much happier here,” Cohen said.
Cheyene Richards is an RA on the eighth floor of Wilson Hall. She has run into issues with students on her floor playing music loudly. Floor meetings help keep the peace on the floor and scheduling when people can play music loudly.
“At the end of the day we have to remember we all live together,” Richards said.
Richards believes the STUDY housing will be good for students who are very academically focused.
“I think it’s kinda fun to be in the same place as people who like the same things as you especially with studying because if we all have a prestigious amount of classes and if you’re aiming for a 4.0, it’s good to have that peace and quiet to study,” Richards said.
Sherman said no matter what there is going to be noise but this housing will naturally be quieter because students have a like-mindedness about noise.
“It’s not going to be the pin-drop silent type of thing but it will be a quieter space for people to understand that they want this quieter space to study in,” Sherman said.
