By JESSE DUNSMORE

Senior Reporter

While other students are drifting off to sleep or passing out, Jennifer Van Vliet’s night is just getting started.

As a Nightwatch desk worker, Van Vliet is stationed by one of the exterior doors of Vandenberg Hall a few nights a week. She swipes the IDs of students entering during her shift. It is her job to make sure that each person entering has an ID.  Nightwatch employees also have to notify author-ities if someone has a weapon, is a minor in possession of alcohol or violates other regulations.

Nightwatch workers aren’t security guards — they aren’t going to tackle someone who appears to be a threat.

“We have to stay behind the desk,” said Van Vliet. “And if they have a gun, we’re supposed to…quickly call the police.”

But the job isn’t just threat aversion to Van Vliet.

Since applying for the position last year under advice from friends who had done the job, she’s learned that sometimes, things are just more interesting after the sun goes down.

Van Vliet’s shift, which lasts from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., might be intimidating to some but not to an insomniac like her.

“I don’t sleep anyway, she said. “I spent more time up with Nightwatch last year than any single Nightwatch worker.”

Although the entrance isn’t very busy that late, there are a few stragglers. Often, she finds people more than willing to talk about their personal lives with a stranger in the wee hours of the morning.

Van Vliet recalls that during the week prior to Valentine’s Day, four people confided in her that they had just broken up with significant others.

“It was a bad week, apparently,” said Van Vliet. She even offered to be their Valentines. “They were all like, ‘It doesn’t count if it’s you, Jenny.’ Oh.”

In addition to some incidents Jenny said she “couldn’t talk about,” she once bore partial witness to what looked like a bitter off-camera love triangle.

A male student came in with a female student, who signed him in and took him upstairs. What he didn’t know, said Van Vliet, was that she had a boyfriend.

“Then another guy comes in, who I happen to know is her boyfriend,” she said.

The boyfriend walked upstairs. A few minutes later, the other male student stomped down the stairs and exited the building, hand held to his face, while the female student yelled down the stairwell after him, Van Vliet said.

“I have a good imagination,” she said.

Some perks of Nightwatch, at least in Vandenberg, is viewed as being more “friendly” than RAs, Van Vliet said. According to Van Vliet, the Nightwatch workers in Hamlin hall tend to have a sterner attitude, possibly because of their constant interaction with freshmen.

“Either [freshmen] do more wrong or they aren’t as practiced at not getting caught,” said Van Vliet.

It looks good on a resume for other housing positions, such as RA.

The benefits include a stipend of $250 over the course of a semester, paid out biweekly. Nightwatch desk workers also get a double room free of charge, but must purchase a meal plan. Students can apply at the housing office in Hamlin Hall for the job.

Being stuck behind one desk for several hours can be frustrating.

“Around four in the morning, I find myself swearing a lot,” Van Vliet said.

Also, a significant portion of the job description involves rule enforcement.  She said reporting violations also helps make campus safer.

“I don’t like telling on people,” she said. “If I don’t report you, then it’s risking my job for something stupid you do. I have to remind myself that I didn’t do something wrong.”