To the editor:

In light of the changing seasons and the accompanying lawn work that has been happening on Simmons College residence campus, I would like to raise my concerns about the noise level of said lawn work during the day.
My roommate and I, along with other students, feel as though there is always noisy and disruptive yard work being done on the quad on a consistent basis, whether someone is mowing the lawn or blowing leaves. For instance, currently, I’ve been attempting to work on homework for upwards of an hour now and there has been a consistent motor noise coming from a leaf blower the entire time.

Might I point out that winter is inevitably approaching and I honestly do not feel as though the residents of Simmons College are concerned about the perfect appearance of the lawn. I understand the requirement for an ascetically pleasing quad for prospective students and even for the general upkeep of Simmons pride, and even I care about the appearance of the lawn to a certain extent; it does not need to look like an overgrown jungle. However, recent maintenance efforts seem to be a little overzealous, and oftentimes, the maintenance occurs early in the morning around 8 am, which is not the best time to do lawn work in a place where people live and sleep.

Living in downtown Boston, we do expect a certain amount of noise and we are used to what we expect– sirens, traffic, helicopters, noisy people, etc, but I feel as though there is always some sort of mechanical noise coming from the quad, whether it be a lawnmower, a leaf blower, or a weedwacker, which seems entirely unnecessary, especially considering the amount of money we pay to live here.

How much of our tuition is allotted to such lawn maintenance and how much of that could be spent on other, more important aspects of residential life (such as quality of food, etc)? Furthermore, this probably wouldn’t be an issue if the air conditioning in Dix hall had not been already turned off and switched to heat, since we could simply close our window if we wanted, but it is still too warm to do so.

I appreciate Res Life putting so much effort and consideration into every aspect of living at Simmons College, and I hope that you will consider my thoughts and opinions on this matter.

Respectfully,
Kristin Blow