<p>About the only thing I didn't like about the WC campus this weekend was the annoying high-pitched "wail" of alarm signals when entering/exiting buildings...security measure I'm told...also crossing the academic quad there was one going off non-stop...is this an ongoing thing? Minor quibble at best we loved the place!</p>
<p>The wail usually happens</p>
<ol>
<li> When you exit an emergency exit you are supposed to swipe your card to get out of</li>
<li> You have a door open for more than 15 seconds.</li>
<li> You open the wrong double door (the one that doesn't close unless the other one is open too) in Tower West despite the sign that says only open the door on the left to go out (it's usually the off-campus parents who are illiterate here)</li>
<li> 1-3 happens, the door is fixed, but the alarm doesn't go off and you have to call campus po.</li>
</ol>
<p>The noise made me twitch in agony every time I heard it, though I assure you, the fire alarm is even more annoying. Sadly, an alarming number of students make the door alarm go off, then walk out of the building leaving the rest of the dorm with desire to throttle them. The alarms suck terribly. People who live near the emergency doors usually paper the door with signs begging people to swipe and not prop the door open.</p>
<p>Fortunately alarms don't go off if you are careful. Whoever let you into the dorms should have been smart enough to let a few people in, close the door and reopen it a few times to let everyone in. I've yanked doors shut then immediately reopened them for the person behind me to prevent the alarm from going off.</p>
<p>In the interest of full disclosure, the heaters clank loudly during the winter. You get used to it (unlike the door alarms).</p>
<p>It depends on where you live if the door alarms are on your radar. I didn't even know they existed last year (well, that's not quite true, but I rarely heard one). This year I live near an emergency exit and it is true, we did have to make an additional sign to cut down on the annoyingly high number of instances of the door alarm being set off. </p>
<p>You may have noticed it more so because this past weekend was "Fall Break", which is a four-day weekend we get formed out of an extension of Columbus Day weekend. Anyway, they locked a lot of stuff up (including the campus center), so my guess is that people were setting off more alarms than usual. Or maybe you were just really unlucky.</p>
<p>I live in Stone Davis, and although the door alarm has gone off a few times, I don't really hear it from my room. But, the sound can be annoying after awhile. I'm pretty sure everyone will manage to set off a door alarm at least once during their four years at Wellesley - it's really easy to do so here. But, it's a minor annoyance that's doesn't really subtract any wonderfulness away from Wellesley is =D</p>
<p>HAHAHA the alarm...yes, it's the universal annoyance at Wellesley.</p>
<p>I have a friend who likes to play the guitar, and she even wrote a song about it:</p>
<p>***** the <strong><em>in alarm,
It always goes on
Just shut the *</em></strong> up
That **in alarm</p>
<p>And do I dare say it...xmoonprincessx always sets it off!!! (Ha, I did it!!) :D</p>