At WZBC, the student-run radio station located in McElroy Commons 107, DJs Nick Sucre ’19 (left) and Josh Mentzer ’19 host a show called Aquamarine Midnight from 1:00 to 2:00 a.m. Photos by Peter M. Julian.
Ricardo Martins supervises the custodial department’s third shift, 71 employees who work through the night, 11:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. He says you can find students in almost every academic building on campus after midnight. They are studying, mostly, but also practicing music, polishing dance routines, rehearsing presentations. The custodians and students “work around each other,” says Martins. “We hold off on a room if they seem busy, and if they pull apart a classroom—to practice some dance, say—they put it back before they leave.” Student numbers dwindle after three o’clock. “If they stay later than that,” Martins says, “it’s usually with their heads down on the table.” The night shift takes many forms on campus. University photographer Peter Julian, a self-described early bird, captured the following scenes during the opening weeks of the fall semester.
BCPD
Friday, September 21
From its base in Maloney Hall, the Boston College Police Department patrols the night. Officer Anthony Cadogan checks a facilities building on the Hammond Pond Parkway Campus.
Cadogan checks in with security officer Christopher Kelly at the front desk of O’Neill Library, which stays open all night, except on Friday and Saturday.
Dispatcher Cody Weber passes a bank of screens that monitor University public spaces.
Cadogan surveys the grounds of the McMullen Museum of Art.
Nachtmusik
Thursday, September 27
The trombone section and a singer from BC bOp! polish "Come Fly with Me" in a subterranean band practice room in Conte Forum until 1:00 a.m. Above: Erin McCormack ’22 (left) and Brian Mailhot ’20.
Clockwise, from left: Nathanael Victor ’20 (vocalist), Audra Kingsley ’22, Curtis Flannery ’20, McCormack, and Mailhot.
Third shift
Wednesday, September 19
Members of the custodial staff’s night crew work Sunday through Friday preparing academic buildings (Stokes Hall, in this case) and other facilities for another day. Savas Savvidis in Stokes South.
John Forbes (piloting the polishing machine), and John Tapley.
Katty Alarcon in Stokes North.
Tapley in the breezeway between the Stokeses.
The physicist
Monday, October 1
In the Higgins Hall 031 laboratory of assistant professor Ilija Zeljkovic, Ph.D. student He Zhao calibrates the scanning tunneling microscope prior to an overnight experiment on superconductivity.
The handmade scanning tunneling microscope maps the electron clouds of individual atoms.
On air
Wednesday, September 5 and
Thursday, September 27
At WZBC, the student-run radio station located in McElroy Commons 107, DJs Nick Sucre ’19 (left) and Josh Mentzer ’19 host a show called Aquamarine Midnight from 1:00 to 2:00 a.m.
Sucre reviews the night’s playlist.
On deadline
Monday, September 17
The Heights staff puts the week’s issue to bed at their McElroy Commons 113 office on a hard deadline of 2:00 a.m. Editor-in-chief Connor Murphy ’19 (in hall), creative director Steven Everett ’20, and investigative editor Heidi Dong ’19 (through doorway).
Layout editor Madison Mariani ’20 (in foreground).
Bakers' hours
Tuesday, September 18
Dining Services bakers fire up the ovens in the McElroy Commons kitchens at 3:00 a.m. to produce, among other items, nearly 1,000 croissants and more than 2,000 cookies and brownies for the dining halls that will start serving at 7:15 a.m. Above: Clinton Durant.
John Amichetti (in ball cap), head baker William Coakley, and Swostismita Behera.
David Young (with whisk) and Behera (with cakes).
Call waiting
Friday, September 28
The 75-member all-student, all-volunteer Boston College EMS provides emergency care across campus, 24 hours a day from its base in Maloney Hall 444. The EMT crew of Danielle Rinaldi ’21 (left), John Esposito ’20, and Caitlin Ruane ’19 depart Maloney for their service vehicle.
They check supplies in the vehicle around 12:35 a.m.
Esposito and Rinaldi play cards—their shift ends at 2:00.
Rinaldi prepares to store a practice dummy.