Lambdin House is part of Connecticut College’s designated Quiet Housing and has long been a place for people with a need for quiet to thrive. On paper, the expectations are clear: students “recognize the shared responsibility on the part of all residents to consistently give priority to quiet academic pursuits.” Quiet must be maintained 24 hours a day from Sunday through Friday, while non-quiet hours are set by residents at the beginning of each year and generally occur on weekends.
This semester, however, Lambdin has not lived up to its name. Students are frustrated with loud music from dorms and showers, long conversations in hallways, and even yelling. For many residents, this undermines the very purpose of living in Quiet Housing. Students with medical conditions say the noise has direct consequences for their health, while others chose Lambdin specifically to escape the distractions of louder dorms.
What makes this year unusual is the way Residential Life has continuously emphasized the fine print of the Quiet Housing policy. In an email to Lambdin residents, ResLife clarified that non-quiet hours would be Fridays and Saturdays from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., stressing that “this does not mean that you are free to be obnoxiously loud” and that courtesy hours still apply. The message pointed out that this process, establishing exemptions at the start of the semester, is written into the policy itself.
But for many students, the clarification came as a surprise, precisely because past practice has been different. As a former Lambdin resident who is back this year, the house operated on a strong mutual understanding in the past. People were simply respectful and kept things quiet all the time. That respectfulness, more than the written policy, defined quiet housing.
Residents say that the official exemptions are like permission for those who choose quiet housing simply for a single dorm rather than legitimate reasons to be noisy on weekends, while others feel even weekday quiet hours aren’t being enforced. The result is the community being divided between those who want Lambdin to live up to its tradition of constant quiet and those who see no issue with some loud weekends. Some students have even had to deal with intentionally disruptive behavior, such as my personal experience of boys knocking on my door just to be obnoxious, undermining the idea of a respectful environment.
“I’ve been in quiet housing throughout all my time at Conn, and this year is the most noisy it has ever been for me,” said one Lambdin resident. “It varies from door slamming to screaming in the hallways to people playing loud music. I am in quiet housing because of my mental and physical health; I experience chronic headaches, extreme fatigue, and pain, which worsen with stress, and a major trigger is noise. Quiet housing was my chance at being able to continue my academic pursuits despite my ongoing health struggles.”
The student added that the new policy on non-quiet hours has blurred the lines between specialty and non-specialty housing. “There were already noise violations from the first week of school, and I have trouble seeing this as anything other than rewarding poor behavior. Given that the violation of quiet hours is considered an honor code violation, I have reason to believe that the continued disrespect of quiet housing is a symptom of us losing our community values. This saddens me because I love and deeply care about this school. A large part of the reason I came here was for the welcoming and caring community that worked together. I don’t only want this for myself, but for all of the future students to come.”
The conflict has spilled onto YikYak, where posts are constantly complaining about noise in Lambdin and calling out loud behavior. In my opinion, complaining online does little to change the situation. If you really care, you should reach out to RAs and address the issue to see actual change. The kind of people who disrespect their fellow students by violating policy will not quiet down if they see a YikYak post that doesn’t even give a specific name. They need to be set in place by student staff.
Burdick is also designated Quiet Housing this year, yet no noise complaints have been posted online like those of Lambdin. It is possible that some students opted to live in Lambdin because they wanted singles in the Plex, without committing to the expectations of living in quiet housing.
If the situation continues, stricter application requirements may need to be introduced for Lambdin next year, with students required to give more concrete reasons for requesting Quiet Housing.
