By Jack Martin
While noise complaints during the weekend are commonplace on college campuses, a new trend of lighting fireworks has also captured the attention of resident advisors and public safety this semester. In the early hours of the weekend mornings, areas like the 200s and 300s townhouses occasionally light up with the illegal activity.
“Definitely this year fireworks are a big issue.” said Lance Jandreau ’18, a resident assistant for the 200s. “They’ve been a problem in the past, but not as frequent as this year.” Jandreau, fellow RAs, and public safety have responded to several instances involving fireworks since the start of the academic year. “I’ve counted at least 10 isolated incidents. In the 200s people will get up on the mound in the middle of the night and fire off Roman candles. In the 300s they have been happening when it’s been really big weekends. One was alumni weekend. That time it was alumni who set off the fireworks, it really doesn’t make a difference but that time they had a lot more at their disposal than the typical college student here.”
“I’ve definitely noticed the fireworks this year.” Said Ben Cohen ’18 resident of the 300 townhouses. “There has been a handful of times where you can hear them being shot off in the middle of the night.”
Samantha Prue ’18, another RA for the 200s townhouses shared Jandreau’s opinions. “There was an instance where there was a group of three guys lighting off roman candles around 3 a.m. in the morning and they were just shooting them off at each other. They had them in their hands and they were shooting them at each other on the mound. I went outside and was like ‘Guys, it’s 3 in the morning, you know you’re not supposed to be doing this, just go to bed,’ and you then watch them slink off like they have their tails between their legs.”
Prue said that it’s difficult to determine who keeps setting off the fireworks. “You hear the fireworks go off and by the time you go out you hear someone’s townhouse door slam but you don’t know whose. It’s been an issue trying to get people not to do it but also finding the people doing it and having them suffer the consequences.”