Sometimes, life brings you lemons, and sometimes life brings you the 12:00 to 4:00 pm shift at Public Safety in East Campus during Homecoming. This unlucky Bwogger watched Columbia get rowdy from the other side of the security desk. Here are some highlights. 

Rare shot of a CUPS work-study student?

Overseen:

• My shift started on a rough note, as one girl trying to recover an ID left in her room escalated until multiple people were threatening to fight a professional security guard. Note: Don’t do this. Please.
• After one resident signed in a bevy of Barnard girls multiple times, he mistakenly then tried to sign himself in as a guest and got confused when I explained that he didn’t have to.
• One resident repeatedly tried to use his credit card to sign in. His friend eventually helped him. Good job, friend!
• Multiple alumni attempted to use their own old IDs to sign in to the dorm.
• I watched one parent holding her young children to her sides on one side of the lobby as a horde of drunk residents left from the other direction, which could have passed as promotion for 300.

Overheard:

• A visiting mother leaving the dorm after a particularly rambunctious student asked, “Do you think that man was inebriated?” When I shrugged, she added, “I bet he was.”
• A different parent asked, “Was there puke in the hallway earlier?”
• One student promised another that, “I know people in Athletics, I can get you in under the table.”
• The professional security guard supervising me sagely advised me, “When it gets busy, I just stop putting people in the system. Just stop signing in guests.”
• Be nice to your security guards. They’re trying their best (maybe).

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.