nightlife
working in the dark
Some students spend their nights studying and days sleeping. BY ASHLEY ARNOLD
Eric Braem/Kansan
Patrick Hermson makes an entry to a Student Security Activity Report at the night desk in GSP-Corbin Hall. Hermson works the front desk from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. three times a week. .
Whether you're in the architecture studio or in bedrooms of students, it's likely you will find a night owl. A night owl is a person who habitually stays up and is active late into the night, according to The American Heritage Dictionary.
Biology and anthropology books will tell you that humans are daytime creatures by nature. But for a surprising number of KU students, this is not the case. Night owls have adapted to a different and sporadic sleeping schedule. Not all of them sleep during the day and work at night. Here's a look at some night owls and how they survive in their world of darkness.
It has become a habit for Brett Powell, Springfield, Mo., senior, to know what it's like to be a night owl because he is an agricultural engineering major. He says everything hits him the week before his architectural projects are due, which makes aspects of the project seem to take three- to- four times longer than what he expected. Each night, after finishing other homework, he heads to the studio to work for about six hours on each project. Two days before the due date, he spends eight- to- 10 hours in the studio. Then he works all day and pulls an all-nighter the night before deadline.
Sound familiar? Whether because of their major, job or because they just function better, students find themselves studying at night. Sleeping and other
tasks are done during the day.
"When I am up during the day, it's nice to enjoy the sun and not be at work," Patrick Hermson, Kansas City, Mo., junior, says.
Hermson works the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift at the GSP-Corbin front desk three times a week. It took him awhile to adjust but because he's been working there since last fall, he's found a routine. Last year his earliest class was at 10:30 a.m.,but he says it was still hard because he could only take a short nap before he had to head off to class.
Sometimes it's projects that keep him up but other times it's just procrastination that leads him to be doing homework late, Josh Johnson, Lenexa senior, says. Johnson is an architecture major and spends a lot of his time in the studio, like Powell. When Johnson's doing study models and preliminary drawings, he's usually up until midnight. But when on deadline he pulls all-nighters. He says he tries to do his non-architectural homework at home because he doesn't like being in the studio building for a long time.
When it comes to pulling all-nighters, Greg Ornay, fine arts graduate student, is a master. Not only does he stay up all night, but he also sometimes stays up for two or three days in a row - 48 to 50 hours.
The longest he's stayed up is four days
10 jayplay
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2000
thursday, october 2, 2003