Some Waltham residents said they are dissatisfied with the Univesity's attempts to curb the late-night noise students create when they walk down the pathway connecting East Quad Lot to South Street. Students who use the pathway make excessive noise at all hours during the week and weekend, some Waltham residents, whose properties border the area, said.

East and North Quad residents received an e-mail Sept. 18 from Director of Residence Life Richard DeCapua advising them to be mindful of the University's neighbors.

A couple that has lived on Wheelock Road for five years, just on the other side of the path, said they complained to the University several times last year, and added that they know neighbors who have voiced complaints this semester. The couple requested anonymity because they work for the city of Waltham and feared professional consequences.

"We have small children," the man said. He said that on more than one occasion, he and his family have heard "drunk and inebriated" students walking behind their yard, in one recent case "rolling boulders" down the wooded path.

"It seems to have gotten worse over the past couple of years," the woman said. "[It was] unnoticeable a few years ago." She said they understand some noise is reasonable since they live so close to a college campus, but now they hear noise Wednesday through Sunday.

She said that she recommended to University officials that a fence be constructed to block off the wooden area, but she said her suggestion was ignored.

Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan confirmed receiving several noise complaints last semester and this semester, as well as a report about individuals rolling boulders, but he said he didn't know about any suggestions to build a fence.

The University showed that "aesthetics were more important than the safety of the neighborhood," she said.

She added that it's unsafe for students to walk down the path late at night.

One night she said they heard a call and response chant "20 feet from [her] daughter's room." She said that while they usually observe groups of two and three students, the groups have occasionally consisted of 50 to 60 individuals.

DeCapua, who received the information from Callahan, said East and North residents had received the memo because they were closest to the path. He added that his department sent out a similar memo last year.

"Last year after we sent that memo, there wasn't one more complaint from anybody in Waltham ... about any noise," he said. If the noise or the complaints were to continue, DeCapua said the next step would be to speak directly with the students involved.

Danny McElroy, who bought his house on Wheelock Road last March, reported similar noise issues, but said they haven't bothered him enough to complain.

"[At first] everything seemed okay, up until the end of the semester, when some of the kids got a little loud coming through here, up and down the street, coming from parties and bars [and] making a bit of a mess in the street with trash," he said. One weeknight, he estimated he saw as many as 100 students walking up and down South Street.

He also said he was concerned students would hurt themselves walking down the path. In March, he recalled, he observed students climbing over the fence when it was icy and slippery.

"Some of them have taken some of the boulders [and] rolled them down the hill, thinking that's kind of funny," he added. He said that most weeknights though, he has no complaints.

Tamar Ariel '10, the East Quad senator, called the concerns alluded to in the memo "understandable." She said more students, not just those who live in North and East, utilize the path to cut through campus to get to parties in the Foster Mods and off campus.

For this reason, she said, it would make sense for the University to inform all students about the issue.

Marguerite O'Connor, a resident on the same side of the street as the path for 51 years, a little bit further up, said she has no complaints about noise.

"I don't know who [complained], but it wasn't me," she said.