OCT
4
2012
FEATURE
PAGE
6
NIGHT HAWKS
On a college campus that works 24/7, who stays up?
ILLUSTRATION BY ZINSER
Security staff make All-hours health services care campus nights safer for partiers, provide experience by AUDREY DAVIS Staff Reporter
A
lthough students see the Whitman Security Staff on a daily basis, few get to know the workers who are on the job into the early hours of the morning. When the night staff is on the clock, the Security Office becomes the command center of Whitman—it fields calls that can range from students asking to be let in to locked buildings to any reports of suspicious activity on campus. Typical weekday night shifts start at 10 p.m., when many of the security officers and student escorts are still on campus. After 1 a.m., the officer on duty is on his or her own until other staff members return at 8 a.m. the next morning. During this period, the night staff takes all student calls. The frequency and nature of these calls varies greatly from night to night, but they have proven to be one of the most interesting parts of the job. “I got a call from a student about somebody outside on the street making noise, so I went and there were two drunk guys, nonstudents, just talking to each other in the middle of the street. I asked them to leave campus and they did so,” said Security Officer Gabe Kiefel. “That couldn’t have been replicated anywhere else. It was a very strange interaction.” Another active branch of Whitman night security are the Yellow Jackets: students employed to patrol and escort around campus. Yellow Jackets provide this service from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., available at times when people might feel uncomfortable on their own. Senior Sam Mehoke, who has been a Yellow Jacket since his first year at Whitman, elaborates on the importance of his post. “The main authoritative power of this service is a security presence on the campus,” said Mehoke. “The escort services, when not es-
corting, make their rounds about the campus and dorms and radio in abnormal activity or suspicious persons. By having a security presence around campus and in living spaces the escort service provides a sense of security to students by students who are familiar with the campus beat.” This student-to-student connection allows the Security Office to become more accessible in case a student has a legitimate concern. Whereas an actual security officer might be intimidating, a peer authority figure puts a friendly, familiar face on authority. Mehoke notes that sometimes even the peer security service can be slightly intimidating. “In the years past when the Yellow Jacket service actually wore designating yellow jackets, students who were unfamiliar with the service would generally disperse from the halls and avoid us until either a friend or an upperclassman would greet us warmly,” said Mehoke. “It is important for the student body to know that they can chat [with] and rely on their friendly neighborhood escort service.” When concerns do arise, the Security Office is an intermediary for the entire college. They collaborate with various administrative departments as well as the local authorities. “We contract through Walla Walla Electric and the first thing they do is call us. If there’s a burglary alarm that goes off, we check it out while the police department is on their way. We expedite those interactions,” said Kiefel. Whether they are responding to tripped alarms or walking students from the library to their residence halls, the security staff is there for students. “When nobody else is on campus, we deal with everything that goes wrong or even things that go right. You name it and that’s what we respond to,” said Kiefel.
Post-midnight
PENROSE
perspectives A late-night study of nocturnal students by ADAM BRAYTON Feature Editor
Corinne Vandagriff, sophomore Why wait to get your work done? I am always curious about the papers I do well on that I save until the last minute. Papers I wait to write tend to have a more fluid process than ones I agonized
over. When you slave over something, you get tired and anxious and you talk about it with your friends and get worked up about it, but when you work on it quickly in one go, the logic tends to be tighter and makes more sense. What gets me most in trouble is drawing the line between my own ideas and professor’s ideas on what a good argument is. That can keep me up pretty late.
by HANNAH AGUIRRE-CLAYSHULTE Staff Reporter
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he Student Health Center brochure states: “The Health Center is open 24 hours each day during the academic year concurrently with housing and food service availability. Whitman College has the only 24-hour health center in the Pacific Northwest and is staffed both night and day with professional nurses.” For most Whitties, a trip to the Health Center involves a check-up, strep throat testing, mono testing and medical advice. Some might go for nutritional counseling, lab tests, STD testing and even massage therapy. While the Health Center is open 24/7, it is possible to have no idea what happens at the Health Center during the night hours. Aside from seeing the occasional patient, during the week the night shifts at the Health Center consist of mainly generic jobs and hardly differentiate from the daytime shifts. “There’s just some minor differences to make the flow work better so people know when it’s convenient to come. Really it’s pretty much the same,” said Nurse Lyda DeFoor. On these slow nights, duties include chores and taking the sporadic phone call. “There’s some housekeeping chores that need to be done such as restocking cupboards, things like that,” said DeFoor. “Answer the phone—sometimes there are things that I can take care of on the phone, people that just have a quick question about health or what time the doctor is going to be here.” On the weekends, the night shift at the Health Center takes a dramatic turn. While most Whitties are out having fun during the weekend, nurses and students on duty at the Health Center have very different weekend nights and oftentimes take care of the negative side of partying. “On a typical Friday night there will be anywhere from one
Ted Younie, junior Which semester has been hardest on you for late-night work? Freshman year, second semester was pretty brutal. I remember staying up all night for a history paper. Encounters was rough, too ... Late at night, the mundane becomes hilarious. The laughter sets in, and you start jumping on bean bags. Rick Lamb, senior Do you stay up late to do work a lot? I often stay up late. It’s not because I don’t like sleeping, but there’s something about nobody else being around when I can really just focus and get in
to four substance abuse patients with the occasional crazy nights with five-plus patients,” said Woody Sorey, a senior who works night shifts at the Health Center. “This involves physically getting them from the door to a bed, helping them in the bathroom, taking and monitoring their vital signs,” said Sorey. “And, after they’ve gone to sleep, making sure they’re lying in a way that prevents them from suffocating or choking on their vomit.” Working at the Health Center during the night shift requires a lot of dedication and a high tolerance for being hands-on. “The night shift consists of a lot of hands-on work,” said Sorey. “Allow me to reiterate that there is a lot of vomit!” Although not frequent, emergencies do happen during the week and weekend night shifts, which require both the students and nurses on duty to be able to work under extreme pressure. “They’re not too frequent,” said Nurse DeFoor. “We have allergic reactions, or people that have fallen and cut themselves, people that are very, very intoxicated that actually need to go to the emergency room ... sometimes people bring in someone with sports injuries like head injuries, passing out, shortness of breath or fractured or dislocated bones.” Dandi Huang, a senior BBMB major who has worked the 8 p.m.11 p.m. shift, has witnessed intoxicated students brought in at all hours of the night. “I don’t have too many crazy nighttime stories, but I have seen very intoxicated students being brought in before 9 p.m.,” said Huang. “I did monitor an intoxicated student that we ended up having to call the EMS for.” Sorey described some of the patient attire he’s witnessed, patients apparently too intoxicated to pay any notice. “I’ve had someone come in wearing nothing but their underwear, as well as someone wearing only a spandex onesie,” said Sorey. “The majority of patients, though, are just people
who need a safe place to finish throwing up and to go to sleep.” So what motivates the Health Center nighttime student staff to take care of intoxicated or hurt students, address emergencies and clean up messes? Both Huang and Sorey agree that one of the main benefits of working at the Health Center is acquiring skills and experience necessary in the medical field. “I am pre-med, so working at the Health Center gives me some insight into how clinics work,” said Huang. “There’s a list of tasks that we’re supposed to learn like vitals, running rapid strep tests ... so you definitely get some exposure to medical practice.” Sorey, also a BBMB major, agrees that part of the appeal of his job is how great it looks on paper for medical schools. “The primary and most obvious reasons are for a steady paycheck and to have something that looks great on an application for medical school ... it’s great to learn and even get some practice with clinical procedures like cleaning wounds and doing diagnostic tests,” said Sorey. Aside from medical experience, the students working at the Health Center have a passion to put their knowledge to use by helping other students. “The reasons I love my job go far beyond that,” said Sorey. “I love my night shifts, where I get to help practice real medicine and be compassionate toward people who are having a really rough night.” The staff at the Whitman Health Center, whether during the day or night, make it their goal to provide the students with accurate medical attention in a comfortable environment. “Our main focus is to take care of the students,” said Nurse DeFoor. As the Student Health Center brochure states, “The College recognizes health maintenance and promotion as essential to both learning and efficiency ... we combine high-quality health care with the warmth of a home away from home.”
the zone. Plus, I’ve been able to get away with it before, so it’s a system that works. I don’t think pressure makes diamonds. I like to work in long shifts of focus, especially when writing a long paper. By the way, rabbit rabbit rabbit.
writing an essay for my political theory class on Plato’s “Republic.” It’s due at 5 p.m. tomorrow. I don’t know if I’m gonna go to sleep tonight. Maybe I’ll sleep at 5 or 6, wake up at 8.
Kai Rasmussen, first-year Do you do your best work at the last minute? Yes. Under pressure, it’s when I really realize that I ought to do it—as opposed to earlier in the week, when it’s just not as pressing. It wasn’t a winning strategy for my last essay because I procrastinated too much. It worked well in high school, so I hope it works well on this paper ... I’m
Miriam Kolker, senior What has your craziest all-nighter been at Whitman? I had to write a 10-page research paper the last night of Thanksgiving break. I was supposed to do it over Thanksgiving break, but I didn’t. I came to the library first thing coming back and worked from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on the fourth floor. Having friends with me helped; it was a real bonding experience.