Student noise the tip of the iceberg

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To the editor:

I applaud James O’Connor’s appeal to the neighbors to partner in reducing noise from Manhattan College students (“Let’s partner in reducing noise,” May 7). As a neighbor who has been very active in organizing and speaking out about the situation, my perspective has always been that we are sharing the neighborhood with these students, most of whom are very reasonable, polite and engaging when they are sober. At their age they are hardwired to be playful, loud, impulsive and somewhat oblivious to the local residents, as were many of us at that age. Part of their education is to help them transition from the self-centered world of adolescence and become more integrated, productive and contributing members of a larger community.

However, we are not doing them a favor by winking and looking the other way, buying into the “unspoken rule” that living near a college means putting up with screaming curses and inappropriate rants right outside first floor residential windows at 3 a.m. It is a far greater disservice to them to silently clean up their discarded beer cans, liquor bottles red cups, pools of vomit and the occasional condom wrapper than to hold them accountable to a basic level of mutual respect.

Manhattan College, noise, Jean Rincon
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