September Counterpoint: Construction causes disruption

Grace Gumbiner, Reporter

I’m sure we all love screaming over the jackhammers in class so the teachers can hear us, but I think it’s safe to say that the construction and the noise it produces are not ideal. The excessive construction at LT consistently inconveniences students and faculty, making it easy to question its necessity in the first place. And it’s not only hot in school, but incredibly humid, so water is a top priority, yet, the three most convenient water fountains at North Campus are out of order.

Walking to the Vaughan gym is a time-consuming hassle, especially when you are eating in a place that has been the wrestling gym for countless years.

The athletic study hall room is packed, some periods forcing students to sit on the stairs due to lack of seating, because the library is already overcrowded.

The real question is: Why is this all being done at once? We do not have access to a typical lunchroom, thus the occupation of the Vaughan gym as the cafeteria, leaving it unavailable to the wrestlers or anyone else needing indoor gym space. The tennis team has had to cut more players than usual because the space at Gilbert Park is limited, which will also leave the girls with extra space on the roster when the new courts are finished.

The largest participation sports at LT, girls’ and boys’ cross country, lacked a course to race on just days before the annual LT Invite, due to construction. The Reber Center is also being redone, and although it needed some alterations, a drastic renovation could not have been timed more poorly. It only squeezes the amount of available space more, because events once held there now need relocation.

Athletic study hall is conveniently located directly above the Reber Center, where pounding on the ceiling is constantly heard. The normally-air-conditioned Reber Center usually has a cooling effect on athletic study hall, but because of construction, a room containing over 60 student athletes is overcrowded, stifling and clamorous.

I would like to say the construction would all be worth it if we were getting air conditioning in all of the rooms, but we are not. The window units are not considered “presentable” enough for classes on the outside of the building. Has the lack of air conditioning not been the largest complaint from LT students for years? Even when air conditioning units have been installed, the rooms are unreasonably frigid. We seem to move from one extreme to the next.

If the construction really has the students’ best interest in mind, it would seem to be beneficial rather than obstructive and distracting as we go through the day.