Dude That’s Rude: Construction

Walking detours, noise, and so many other eyesores appeared on our campus over the summer and this fall. Trust me, I’m all for renovations and making Harvard Square better, but as a student and seasoned campus tour guide, I’m over the mass amounts of construction I am forced to encounter every day. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I’m tired of the mental gymnastics I have to go through just to show up for a lecture that I don’t even understand.

My biggest complaint is Dunster Street closing for construction, but for reasons you probably couldn’t predict. Yes, the walking detour to cross the street between the Smith Campus Center and Mike’s Pastries is trifling. However, it’s especially daunting as someone who is 4’ 11” and an avid fan of both Blank Street and CVS.

Since the path makes you turn 2 corners to cross the street, there’s a 50 percent chance that there’s another person also turning at that same corner, not expecting someone to be at the other side. I’m tired of the looming threat of being run over by someone tall to grab a coffee.

I miss the quick and smooth one-minute walk from Blank Street to the Smith Campus Center.

Okay, now let’s talk about the noise. The construction is so loud, even if I yelled no one would hear me. If you are standing by Lehman Hall, it’s almost like playing that game where you try to lipread while wearing noise-canceling headphones. But in this case, the noise is the noise-canceling headphones, and both parties in the conversation are losing their voices trying to have a normal conversation between classes.

Though I’m excited to see the pretty things that come out of the current construction projects, I’m so tired of its disruptions to my normal Harvard routine.