When the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) decided in 2003 that senior homes on Home and Lawn Avenue would be quiet houses, local residents breathed a sigh of relief. Some students predicted a hit to their social lives, but this concern seems to have died down.

Two years later, houses still are not exactly quiet and neighbors’ concerns continue with little consensus about whether the goals of the quiet houses have been achieved.

Whether or not these changes have made much difference in the past two years depends on who you ask.

Assistant Dean of Student Services Kevin Butler said there is not much difference in the number of noise violations between this year and last, although he said there “have been a couple” in the three weeks since housing opened to undergraduates this semester.

According to some local residents, however, there are a higher number of disturbances than the number of documented violations.

“This street is also a walk-through road,” said Robert Johnston who lives on Lawn Avenue. “After parties, students come through these yards and disrespect my property. [The students] think it’s University housing.”

He added that he has attended countless meetings of the Association of Wesleyan Area Residents (AWARE) and that he believes they have gotten nowhere.

“A problem is addressed, but everybody delegates to somebody else and no changes are made,” Johnston said.

For every upset resident, there’s another without complaints.

“There was a party across the street a few weeks ago,” said Nick Holowka, who lives on Home Avenue. “But they didn’t get out of hand. There haven’t really been any problems.”

One resident, when approached, described the renovation taking place on Lawn Avenue as a greater distraction than his neighbors’ occasional parties.

Most students agree that their peers are respectful of ResLife policy.

“It’s relatively quiet,” said Henry Tan ’08, who lives in Chinese House on Lawn Avenue. “No parties except birthday parties are thrown here. And I’m not much of a party person, anyway.”

Unlike Butler, Assistant Director of ResLife Rich DeCapua, said that the changes on these two streets have been dramatic.

“We’ve gotten very few complaints,” said DeCapua, a Home Avenue resident. “And that’s because everybody who applies to live in a quiet house has to attend the Community Standards Workshop. People know after the workshops what it means to live in a quiet house.”

According to ResLife policy, students living in quiet houses may only host parties if “they are small and the noise from such events can easily be contained within the house.” Many seniors, however, have learned that a party’s size is all relative.

“I had twelve of my friends over at one point,” said Lacey Friedman ’06. “And I’ve been to a few large cocktail parties at other quiet houses and the noise level was fine.”

Some neighbors have said that, although Public Safety is available to respond to noise violations, they rarely arrive in time to reprimand rowdy students.

“The students are gone by the time Public Safety gets here,” Johnston said. “And once Public Safety leaves, another wave of students comes by.”

Offending students who live in University-owned quiet houses do not receive warnings for noise violations. Instead, they are automatically referred to a committee composed of members of the Office of Residential Life and the Dean of Student Services. After repeated offenses, a student may be forced to relocate.

Fortunately for students, most residents prefer to deal with their noisy neighbors themselves.

“On the first night we moved in, we were being pretty loud while we were trying to assemble our beds,” said Jennifer Low ’06. “Our neighbor came over and asked us to keep it down, and we did.”

For some, the houses on these streets seem to strike a perfect balance: enough quiet to focus on studies, but not so much that the neighborhood seems deserted.

“And when we feel like it, we can just go to parties at somebody else’s house,” said Kim Lippman ’06. “After putting so much time and money into fixing up this house, the last thing I want is somebody I don’t even know [messing] it up during a party. I still don’t understand why anyone would want to throw one of those huge parties in the first place.”