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Noise Pollution at the University of Oklahoma Michael Phillip Wright
Norman, Oklahoma USA
Copyright 2002
All Rights Reserved
E-mail the author.Sunday, January 20, 2002
Praise the Lord and Crank Up the Bass
In a September 2000 letter published by The Norman Transcript, retired OU Professor Richard Wells wrote that he hated to see the gradual shifting of OU's priorities away from its educational mission and toward entertainment. He was calling attention to a serious problem. [1]
As I write this I am in the Beard Lounge of the OU student union. I come here seeking a quiet place to work, because noise pollution from boom cars, illegal loud exhaust systems, and barking dogs ruined my home office environment years ago. Many of the boom car boys are students whose noise aggression is condoned by David Boren's OU administration.
Earlier I had planned to occupy a booth, drink coffee, and write in the restaurant downstairs. My plan was disrupted by the thumping amplified bass used by a commercial church in its noise-making weekly fund-raiser. The OU union managers, always interested in fund-raising themselves, have been renting the building's auditorium to these hucksters since last summer.
Loud amplified noise, which I hesitate to call "music," is part of their scheme. Neither the OU "educators" nor the "Christian leaders" appear to care about the problem of noise-induced hearing loss, which, as audiologists have known for decades, is a predictable consequence of high-decibel entertainment sources. [2,3,4] Even more deplorable is the fact that parents seeking salvation in the afterlife are ignorant of the risk of hearing loss they inflict on their own small children whom they bring to these weekly indoor tent meetings.
The intrusion of the commercial church began last summer, when I had an association with a Vietnamese student named Trung who worked in the restaurant. Trung was trained in classical music and played guitar and piano. He was interested in learning songs from the American tradition. Since business was slow in the summer, he had time to play music during his working hours. We started meeting at the restaurant on weekend mornings.
I brought my mandolin, guitar, and castinets. Trung brought his classical guitar. We were having an interesting cultural exchange. He actually taught me some material from the European classical tradition. I began to teach him some American jazz classics. Because of the impact of the earlier American presence in Vietnam, we knew some of the same songs.
We entertained customers, but of course we used no amplifiers. A couple in their 50s used to come in and hear us. The woman was Hawaiian. I impressed her by singing a hula song in which I sang this line:
A student from Brazil heard us a few times. He recognized Luna Rosa, a Neapolitan song. His mother had a recording of it. In our spontaneous fashion, with no financial sponsorship, Trung and I were working in the spirit of what once were the finer ideals of a university community: true diversity in contrast to phony McWorld multiculturalism, cultural exchange, and appreciation for performing art instead of thump-boom audio stimulus."Como mai no kahua i kahali welakao"In an earlier day, before the age of amplified noise pollution, our work would have enjoyed wide appreciation around the OU community. Things have changed. As American culture has declined, OU has declined right along with it. Further, at OU money rules. The pseudo-Christian hucksters pay cash to purchase the right to abuse others with their noise. The fact that they disrupt people trying to study or play unamplified music in other parts of the building is of no concern to OU administrators.
Last summer I complained to the commercial church leaders about their noise. I informed them that it could be heard downstairs in the restaurant. They advised me to go outside and enjoy the sunshine. I also mentioned the problem to OU police officers who drink coffee in the restaurant. Nothing was done.
Although enforcement efforts are weak, the city of Norman has a noise control ordinance. Further, decades ago the student union was annexed by the city in order to collect the local sales tax from its retail activities. During a visit to the city planning department I recently confirmed that the union was still in the city limits. I intend to inform the city about the Union noise problem.
Students Sleeping in the Lounge
About 20 feet away from me is a fellow sleeping on a couch. I have often seen up to six people sleeping in this lounge. I have also seen them sleeping on the couches in the library. These are not vagrants or homeless people. Young and often fashionably dressed, they are obviously OU students who do not get enough sleep in their living quarters.
I suspect loud roommates with TVs and boom-boxes are the problem. If OU even has a noise policy, it certainly isn't being taken seriously. Within the last year the student newspaper has editorialized about the noise problem while supporting longer hours for the library. The need to escape noisy roommates and find a quiet place to study was mentioned.
OU's Noisy Library
Unfortunately, the OU library is not much of a solution. In the spring semester 2001, a story in the campus newspaper reported that the library had announced a ban against the use of cell phones in all areas with specific exceptions for lobbies. As a frequent user of the library, I can state with confidence that the ban has mostly been ignored. Rare is the visit in which I am spared interruption by the inconsiderate and obnoxious conduct of cell phone users. I have never seen a library employee enforce the ban.
In an April 1999 column in the student newspaper, The Oklahoma Daily, Johan Wanstrom called attention to the cell phone problem:[5]
Another example is when students do not turn off their cell phones during class. Phone calls disturb the whole class in the middle of interesting conversations or when the professor is explaining something important.The library has always been regarded as a place of silence, but there are people who do not turn off their cell phones when they go there. Not only does the ringing phones disturb quit readers [sic], but they also force readers to endure listening to phone conversations when cell phone owners don't have the decency to leave the reading area to talk.Cell phones are not the only problem. Many students act as though they were never introduced to the idea that a libary is a quiet place. Groups of them quite commonly cluster together and converse at normal conversational levels, as though they were in a bar. They seem unaware of the social etiquette which prohibited loud conversation in libraries when I was a student, and appear to have no idea that the building has provided conference rooms for students who want to engage in group study. The library administration is absolutely indifferent about this problem. Not long ago I was passing by when a student employee was giving a guided tour of the library to visitors. I heard him make the remark that students like to come to the library to "hang out." In a February 2001 letter to the Daily, business management junior John Cook complained about "chatty Cathys and guy smilies" who conduct "social hour in the library." [6] Cook does not challenge the noisy status quo in the dormitories, but remains encumbered by the quaint notion that a library should be quiet:
One problem with the library is that its professional staff has been drastically reduced over the years. An employee who resigned in December 2001 told me that within the past fifteen years the professional staff has been reduced from sixty to thirty percent of all employees. The majority are now cheap labor: students and graduate assistants.I have become very upset with the noise level in our library. The library should be a place where one can study quietly. Students should be able to leave their noisy dorms, fraternity or sorority houses and apartments to retreat to the quiet halls of knowledge in Bizzell. But lately, students find it necessary to converse using their outside voices without regard for others who are entranced in study. Just the other day on the third floor I had my attention pulled away from my assignments when a girl walked by talking up a storm on her cell phone. I partially blame the faculty at the library for not using the 'S' word enough (Shhhhhh!).This is ironic for an institution whose president is continually grandstanding about his fund-raising abilities. As I write this, construction of a football stadium expansion costing $54 million is under way. After the University mercilessly drove people from their homes with its power of eminent domain, the last remnants of a once beautiful neighborhood east of the campus will be destroyed for it. The stadium PA system can now impose its noise on Norman residents a mile away.
Update Note: March 22, 2002, 1:05 PM
At this moment two small girls, appearing to be 4 or 5 years old, are in the library's computer terminal area on the main floor and are joyfully spinning around on the swiveling chairs which they have moved to an open space in front of the information desk. The library employees are absolutely indifferent about the situation. The mother's cell phone just serenaded the area with a brief passage from The William Tell Overture.
Boom Cars Have Their Way on the OU Campus
As noted in my biographical summary, I have a record of having been awarded four federal research grants for computer applications in health science. I included OU faculty as consultants on my projects and co-authors of the journal submissions. Much of my own professional work, including the authorship of the grant applications and management of the projects, has been accomplished in a home office. Now, because of OU's irresponsible practice of leniency towards boom car offenders, I have been driven from my home office and have suffered grave damage to my personal life and professional position.
For those who may not know, a "boom car" is a vehicle equipped with extra-powerful bass speakers intended for no purpose other than to call attention to the immature individual operating the vehicle and to annoy others. Boom cars on thes street can achieve decibel levels as high as 150 at the source and can rattle windows and cause floors to vibrate. When the louder ones pass, it sounds like someone is pounding on my door.
Boom cars represent a new sociopathology. The ads for manufacturers of boom car equipment promote aggression, sexism, misogyny, and hatred of the elderly. One of the worst examples is provided by a Prestige Audio ad published in Car Stereo Review (October 1997). The headline boasts: "Research shows excessively loud car stereos are the number one annoyance to people over 40." Additionally, the ad copy says that the "120 watt amp will put the over 40 set into cardiac arrest."
Boom cars blast their way around OU with no interference from campus police. Due to noise pollution having destroyed my home office working environment, I am forced to visit the campus frequently to use the library. In recent years I have called the OU Police several times to report the boom car problem and ask for enforcement. During warm months it is rare that I ever visit the OU campus without hearing a boom car. I have never seen one stopped by the OUPD.
I live about three blocks east of the campus, on Brooks Street, which leads directly to the campus and is frequently traveled by OU students occupying several apartment complexes directly east of me. I was assured that the OUPD has enforcement authority on Brooks, but they appear not to be concerned about this problem. In the early part of the fall 2001 semester there were mornings in which boom car audio assaults have been as frequent as four within a 30-minute interval.
The operation of boom cars is prohibited both by city ordinance and university regulation. The city's noise control ordinance has a simple plain audibility standard. Stereo noise which can be heard beyond a 50-foot radius from a vehicle is a violation. Enforcement is simple. No decibel meter is required. Boom car operators want their noise to be powerful and to be heard for long distances. It is within the very nature of their motives to violate the law.
The OU Student Code requires students to obey all local, state, and federal laws. Further, the Code prohibits use of any electronic amplification equipment on campus without a permit. OU's toleration of boom cars is unjust and illegal. By allowing these instruments of audio aggression to inflict disturbance on serious students who need and deserve a quiet campus for study, the University has compromised the purposes of higher education and has begun the process of redefining itself as an entertainment center and noise polluter.
I have sought to ask OU to remedy the boom car problem in other ways besides calling the OUPD. In the fall of 1997 I visited the Secretary of the Regents and asked for an agenda item at a Regents meeting in order to discuss this problem. My request was denied. I also visited Suzette Dyers, an OU official associated with enforcement of the Student Code. No relief from the boom car menace has resulted from any of my communication to OU personnel.
Boom cars are a public health and safety hazard. Every day, throughout the United States, they inflict millions of people with stress, anger, and sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation leads to immunesuppression, daytime drowsiness, impaired work performance, auto accidents, and associated fatailites. Additionally, high-decibel, low-frequency noise has been shown to inflict heart symptoms and neurological disorders with repeated exposure in occupational environments, [7] and evidence indicates that loud auto stereos impair drivers' response to objects appearing in peripheral vision. [8] For more information, see my website devoted to the boom car menace.
The Noisy Student Union
When I was attending OU, the Student Union was a quiet and dignified building. The lobby was a place where student groups representing different purposes and political agendas could occupy booths and spread their messages and literature. Interesting spontaneous debates were a common occurence. The Will Rogers room dining area also enabled the same lively conversational atmosphere.
Today, the Union is dominated by noisy devices which serve what appears to be the needs of a young generation possessed by noise and video addiction. In the restaurant area on the first floor there are six large video screens playing simultaneously and usually on different channels. An additional nuisance is created by the OU cable TV station booth which was added to the student union lobby in the late 90s. The egotistical DJs gleefully express their power by opening its door and blasting noise into the nearby bookstore without giving a thought to the possibility that there may be some serious scholars at OU who might want to browse there in peace and quiet.
The once-dignified Will Rogers dining room, now converted to a fast food court, suffers today from a loud CD-player which ensures that noise-addicted students requiring a large dose of thumping bass stimulus are able to satisfy their needs.
Rock Bands Rock the Campus
Loud rock bands frequently are allowed to perform on campus. In warm months they are often given space in front of the Student Union and on the top floor of the facility's parking garage. Because of the powerful sound amplification equipment in use today, they can annoy Norman residents in the neighborhoods close to the campus. They can be heard inside the Union, in the second floor lounge, where serious students go in search of a quiet place to study. Once last year I attended a lecture on the third floor of the Union building. A rock band was blasting away on the first floor, and the noise was interfering with the lecture. Under the administration of politician-president David Boren, new priorities have emerged. Entertainment ranks over scholarship.
RETURN to Table of Contents (Noise)
REFERENCES
1. Richard Wells, "OU's Decision on Medicine Obscene and Irresponsible," [letter] The Norman Transcript, September 17, 2000.
2. Ralph Rupp, et al., "Hard Rock Music and Hearing Damage Risk," Sound and Vibration 8, No. 1 (January 1974), pp. 24-26.
3. "Noise and Hearing Loss," Journal of the American Medical Association 263, No. 23 (June 20, 1990), p. 3185.
4. Environmental Protection Agency, Noise: A Health Problem (August 1978)
5. Johan Wanstrom, "New Technology Means New Rules of Etiquette," The Oklahoma Daily, (University of Oklahoma) April 22, 1999, p. 4.
6. John Cook, "Noise Level in Bizzell Library Has Become Unbearable," [letter] The Oklahoma Daily, (University of Oklahoma),February 23, 2001.
7. Nuno Castelo Branco, et al., "Vibroacoustic Disease: Some Forensic Aspects," Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 1999 Mar; 70(3): 9.
8. Laura Spinney, "Pump Down the Volume," New Scientist 1997 July;155 (209): 22.
