In high rises, students work the late, late shift

For most Penn students, getting up for a 9 a.m. class is tough. But some students who work in the high rises start their day even earlier, sometimes waking up for a shift that starts at 3 a.m.

In Rodin, Harrison and Harnwell college houses, students who work at the information centers sometimes take shifts starting at 2 a.m. or later, said Business Services spokeswoman Barbara Lea-Kruger.

In most college houses - including the high rises on some nights of the week - work-study students staff the information centers from 5 p.m. until midnight or 2 a.m., at which point an Allied Barton guard takes over for the night until 8 a.m.

In the high rises, however, student employees, rather than Allied Barton guards, work through the night.

The high rises are the only college houses that allow students to work late-night shifts this semester, Kruger wrote in an e-mail.

Ware College House has students work until 2 a.m., and the other college houses employ students until midnight.

The nights staffed by students change each semester based on the needs of the College House and the availability of the student workers, Lea-Kruger wrote.

She added that students have been staffing late-night hours, both on weeknights and weekends, for about four years.

College sophomore David Shore, the student manager in the Rodin Information Center, said that the number of late-night shifts staffed by students has changed over the past year.

"Last year they had students working overnight for only one day a week, as opposed to the three we have now," he wrote in an e-mail.

Many of the students that work late-night shifts, Lea-Kruger said, specifically choose the overnight hours.

"No one is required to work these shifts," she wrote. "However some students prefer working late night hours."

In Rodin, for example, two students with a light class load on Friday volunteered to permanently cover the 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. shift on Friday mornings.

The remaining late-night shifts on Saturdays and Sundays, however, are a responsibility that all work-study students in Rodin share.

According to Shore, there are four to five hour rotational shifts which work-study students must take turns covering.

Engineering sophomore Stephanie Klebba, who also works in the Rodin Information Center, said each student covers the shift once or twice during the semester.

"Students can switch weekends if necessary, but everyone eventually works it," she said.

In Harnwell, students are required to work a total of eight hours over breaks or reading days, said a student who wished to remain anonymous, but covering a late-night shift is not required of student workers.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.