Protest strikes sour note with some north campus residents

Goooooood morning, English House! Most of the residents of the Kings Court/English House dormitories may not need alarm clocks to wake up for their early classes during the next few weeks. At 7:30 every morning since before students arrived on campus, the Metropolitan District Council of Carpenters, which is picketing in front of the Sheraton University City Hotel, has blasted a tape-recorded message which awakens most of the dormitories' 350 students. Joseph Barrett, a representative for the council, said the carpenters are protesting the Sheraton's hiring of a Texas-based corporation to renovate its rooms, rather than offering the contract to local carpenters. The message is broadcast from two megaphones that are wired to equipment inside a car parked outside the dormitory or behind the hotel. Last week the message asked people not to patronize the Sheraton. This week it explains the reasons for the protest. Residents of the dormitory, located at 36th and Chestnut streets, said that they have asked protesters to turn off the recordings. "Protesting is fine, but it needs to start a little later," said first-floor Kings Court resident Brian Gault, a College sophomore. "I'll probably just get used to it." Indeed, Barrett said students may have plenty of time to adjust to the early wake-up. "[The protest] could continue forever," Barrett said. University Police Sergeant Ivan Kimble said that if University Police receive enough complaints about the noise, officers would probably call in a civil affairs unit to talk to all parties involved. "It's against the law to make loud noise in any situation," Kimble said. "I'm sure they have a reason for what they're doing," said College sophomore Joshua Himes, a third floor Kings Court resident. "Still, it was before I was planning to get up."

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