Vanessa Huntley might have one of the strangest sleep schedules at Columbia. She rarely sees the sunshine anymore and says she enjoys the moon’s glow and the eerie calm that falls over the lawns in the wee hours of the night.
She works Public Safety’s graveyard shift along with a number of other vigilantes, who keep watch over the campus while some sleep, some party, and others finish term papers.
Huntley said she has learned to take pleasure in the simple things as a late-night Public Safety officer—for example, selectively signing in students to East Campus.
“That’s the best part of working at EC. Crowd control! You’re going to get that regular intox on weekends, that’s nothing new,” she says, waving away the suggestion that EC is a challenging dorm to work in. “I worked EC last night and it was very nice. They’re all seniors. Not that juniors aren’t nice!”
Fellow Public Safety officer Dwight Palmer said he enjoys making conversation with students and looking out for the ones he knows.
“I’m a talker myself,” he says as he waves cheerfully to a student swiping into the dorm around midnight. “You guys are very smart. Some of you have a very high IQ, so to speak, though you don’t show it,” he chortles, calling Columbia “a landmark” of education, where he gets to interact with “future CEOs [and] senators” in the making.
Palmer, who has been at Columbia “about 180 days,” works the 11:45 p.m.-6:45 a.m. shift five days a week. “My hours can become difficult at times, but you adjust to it,” he says, with a cheerful smile.
Students are always courteous, if not friendly, he says.
“When they sign in their boyfriends they say ‘hello,’ when they sign in their girlfriends they say ‘ello.’”
However, there are times when some are in no shape to carry on a conversation.
During the night shift, “the most interesting experiences are ... the ones who are really intoxicated. Friday night and Saturday night, those are the drunken nights. As Public Safety officers, a lot of times we have to intervene to try to ... have them report to the dean on Monday morning,” Palmer says with a nod.
Huntley says her interactions with intoxicated students are mostly positive.
“I had a student in Hartley. It was her birthday. She was so funny. She had EMS laughing!” Huntley recalls.
But Palmer said Public Safety officers are often quick to worry.
“A guy’s drunk? C’mon, you gotta learn to handle your liquor. But when you see a female ... [I] don’t like to see that part. Anything can happen,” he says.
Palmer says one of the most entertaining parts of the job is witnessing kids signing in their parents embarrassedly after he’s seen them walk in drunk the night before. “All the time, all the time,” he chuckles.
He said he has seen many of the students with whom he has formed close bonds receive treatment from Columbia University Emergency Medical Services. Palmer said he recalls one incident in particular, involving a student with whom he used to speak with every morning.
“I see this particular student in the back of the ambulance and I said, ‘Oh no, not you!’” Every day after that, he said, “I would whisper to him, ‘Are you OK?’”
Huntley says she shares Palmer’s affinity for the students.
“I love the students from all over the world. I look out for all the students. They’re my best friends,” she says.
She’s quick to identify her favorite part of the job. “Meeting students of different ethnic backgrounds, different heights, different weights, all walks of life,” Huntley said with a chuckle after entering Furnald around 1 a.m. to begin her shift.
“Each night for me is a different assignment—I love my schedule. For example, Journalism, I just checked the labs... only one student there,” she says. In a span of three minutes, Huntley receives several phone calls and walkie-talkie pages—she leans in to “listen to base to see if anything’s happening in Southfield that I should know about.”
Huntley says that despite the odd hours, she’s never dozed off during her shift.
“Sometimes I drink coffee if I’m desperate. I might sip on a five-hour energy drink,” she confesses with a guilty smile.
Palmer said he tried one once at students’ suggestion but wasn’t impressed.
Huntley says she has found ways to pass the time during the night shift.
“I sneak and read the New York Times,” she says, adding that all Public Safety officers read the Times as well as Spectator. “I clean, clean my area at night. I make myself useful,” she says. She used to clean the windows in the Public Safety booth at the end of College Walk when she worked there.
The only pastime she eschews completely is midnight snacking.
“I’m burning calories at night!” she says with a confident laugh.
So when does the going get tough?
“When it hits about 4:00, 4:15, 4:30.” Palmer pauses. “5:45, 6:30 ... and then your supervisor comes in to check if you’re awake,” Palmer says.
sonalee.rau@columbiaspectator.com
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