OPINION: UR needs to limit noise on the IM fields

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On October 9th, at around 6:30 am, I was woken by the sound of Y2K music intermingled with cheers coming from the IM fields. This, unfortunately, was nothing new: since moving into the Gateway Village Apartments and realizing that the lacrosse team’s field was under construction, I had been woken by this very noise for the past month. However, this morning, because of how obnoxiously loud the noise was, I took a video from my desk, with my window shut. 

The evenings also offer their own particular challenges: each evening, non-University of Richmond students play soccer and if rugby leaves the shed door unlocked, then non-UR people have access to the school speakers. The lights on the fields turn off automatically at 11 p.m., so from then until 6:30 a.m., I’m offered a reprieve. But 7.5 hours of sleep is not sufficient. 

This cacophony had reached unbearable heights. Instead of doing what a normal student might do and reaching out to housing or complaining to the RAs, I brought the story to my journalism class and set off on a pursuit to understand why I was being subjected to this noise. In doing so, I found many other students equally dissatisfied and an administration that claimed to not hear the students’ complaints.

To begin, I reached out to the Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Communications, Jason Vida, and asked him about the IM fields and how the sports teams utilize each space. His response highlighted the puzzle of which teams go where to practice, but offered little insight into why there’s so much noise coming from the fields. He recommended I reach out to University Recreation if I had a question about intramural sports and their facilities. 

He wrapped up his email by stating that, “I’ve been here for a little over eight years and I haven’t heard of any noise complaints from students relating to varsity athletics practices or games.” 

After undertaking this expedition and having complained numerous times myself, I questioned the validity of this statement. 

Next, I took his advice and moved on to University Recreation, where I interviewed Antwain Salvatto, Intramurals and Facilities Manager. Salvatto talked about the difficulties with keeping non-UR affiliated residents off of the field. 

“One of the issues that we run into is supervising the field late at night,” said Salvatto, “There’s no fence or anything that prevents people from getting access to the field.”

The lights are on a timer, he said, but there’s a speaker system that anyone with access to the shed can use. This prompted me to ask if the shed door was left open, could people potentially start playing music? 

“Yeah, I mean, the shed door is typically not left open,” Salvatto said. 

The next evening, as I walked back to my apartment, community members kicked a ball into the parking lot. As I tossed it back, I found the shed door wide open. 

The non-UR soccer players were playing music, as they regularly do.

This left me perplexed. We are a small, D1 school, ranking #7 for best athletic facilities according to the Princeton Review. Was this just one of the caveats of a small campus? Was this one sacrifice non-athletic regular persons (NARPs) had to make for the betterment of the sports teams? 

As I pondered, I continued interviewing: I first reached out to other Gateway residents, hoping that maybe other people weren’t as bothered. I found the opposite. 

The lacrosse team’s music and shouting had woken senior Eric Waligora, who lives in the 157 block of the Gateways, numerous times. 

“They were always bumping these massive speakers at like, 7 a.m.,” Waligora said. “And I literally had to call housing and they were just like ‘Oh yeah, we can’t do much about it.’ And then I literally called URPD.” 

Another Gateway resident, senior Emma McCauley, noted the noise in the mornings, but was bothered more by the everpresent nature of the noise. Students aren’t informed when the fields will be in use.

“It’s, for the most part, a constant noise,” McCauley said, “Not only the noise of the megaphones, whistles, speakers, but also crowds, parents, and kids and pets.” 

When asked about noises outside of allowed hours, such as the quiet hours designated by the campus, McCauley said that the evenings stood out to her more, since she’s normally already awake for 9 a.m. classes when the lacrosse team used to begin practice. 

“When I have sat in my room to do homework, [I] could blatantly hear [the noise] through the walls,” McCauley said.

I asked McCauley about the noises from the non-UR community members, and if the noise they generated was an issue for her. 

“The school sanctioned events are the louder ones because they’re typically coming in with speakers and megaphones and larger groups,” she said. 

McCauley finally said that it would be more beneficial to have a schedule of when the fields will be in use, therefore Gateway residents can have a heads up before there will be extreme amounts of noise. 

Waligora has reported the problem to the administration, but his reports resulted in little action from both the housing manager and URPD, who said that after 7 a.m., there’s no noise requirement. According to the Residence Life and Housing, housing policy webpage quiet hours extend to 8 a.m.

Waligora also noted that he lived in North Court his sophomore year and would be bothered by the noise from the tennis matches. This statement resulted in my mind running wild: what about the first-year dorms and the fact that when there’s a baseball game you can’t stand to be outside? What about Keller Hall, whose residents must be affected by the field hockey games? 

I spoke to a previous Marsh resident, Mairin Conrad, whose third floor room faced the baseball field. 

“I was awoken frequently by the baseball practice music,” Conrad said. “Games were loud, but I think practice was more of an issue for me because they were earlier and they were blasting music.” 

Conrad said that it’s extra frustrating to be woken up in the morning. 

“I think there needs to be more awareness,” Conrad said. “They need to be a bit more cognizant and respectful of students, especially when they’re in such close proximity to residence halls.” 

I asked Conrad if she could hear the actual lyrics or if it was just the bass. 

Conrad replied succinctly: “I could sing along.” 

At this point, the amount of noise early in the morning seems to be exorbitant: why are athletics allowed to interrupt people’s sleep? Why hasn’t anyone ever solved this issue when students are reporting these problems to housing managers, RAs and URPD? 

Waligora showed me his sleep app at the end of his interview. In the first six weeks of school, he was being woken up regularly, knocking his little sleep bar on the app from deep sleep straight to awake.

The housing website itself even states “The right to sleep or study always supersedes the right to make noise.”

This rule is not being upheld by the athletic department. Sleep is ultimately why I started writing this story. I really value my quality sleep. And for good reason. 

Sleep in adolescence is of the utmost importance. Poor sleep results in increased chances for obesity, increased mental health problems, increased headaches, and increased fatigue. If we are expected to learn and retain information, we need quality sleep. 

We need noise to be limited: we need more information regarding when and why we will be woken up by screaming lacrosse players at 6:30 a.m. We need athletics to respect the right to sleep in on weekdays at least until 8 a.m. and the administration to acknowledge the pile of associated complaints. 

We need, as McCauley said, a schedule provided by the university and limited noise, to ensure we get sufficient sleep and to ensure that residential rights are respected. 

Though my lack of sleep might be the reason for my intolerance, I still implore the university to create rules for athletic teams to allow their non-athlete students an important luxury: a good night’s rest. 

Contact contributor Rosalie Hinke at rosalie.hinke@richmond.edu