Construction on the Center for Undergraduate Excellence, located between Olson and Lake halls, had affected students’ lives in the residence halls.

“When it first started, they were doing work on the outside and it did impact students,” said Jill Church, director of Residence Services. “We didn’t think it was going to impact students, but when we found out it did, we made sure students knew what was happening so that they knew what the noise was.” 

Church said work on the inside and outside of the building is expected to be completed by the end of spring break. According to the university website, as of March 20, Undergraduate Studies is now located in the center. 

Strict hours permitted construction to happen between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to prevent disrupting students’ sleep and study hours, Church said. Yet students in Olson and Lake Halls had complaints in the fall semester of construction work starting as early as 8 a.m. 

Sophomore chemistry major Allison McNeese lives right above the construction site in Olson hall and often found herself waking up to the construction noise below. 

“In the beginning of fall semester, it was really annoying because they would start construction really early in the morning,” she said. “We had the notion that the construction would be done by the beginning of the Spring 2015 semester so it’s really annoying that it has been drug on this long.”

Sophomore hospitality management major Tara Sirakis, who also lives in Olson, said that the work trucks often block the Esplanade, causing congestion between classes. 

She also said that it disrupts her in the morning when she’s trying to sleep because they start so early. 

Olson and Lake RHD Diane Platton said recent work on the Center for Undergraduate Excellence has included outside cosmetic work and testing fire alarms and backup generators. Students were given about a week’s notice before these tests were performed. 

“They tested the backup generator to make sure that the generator is functional if we were to lose power,” Platton said. “The fire alarms were tested to make sure that if the alarm in Olson Center were to go off that Lake and Olson halls would be evacuated.” 

The fire alarms were the last test before employees were allowed to begin moving back into offices in the center. 

Contact Lauren Biertempfel at [email protected].