It's 3 a.m. Like a self-appointed lighthouse, Taylor Hall's top floor is a beacon. The intense light is visible to most of campus, from Tri-Towers to Engleman, especially in the middle of the night. Around 4 a.m., security aides make their rounds on the fourth floor, chasing students away and extinguishing overhead lights. For just a few moments, the entire floor, a studio lined with drawing tables, is dark. But once security has left, the architecture students slowly trickle back into the building and get back to work.

Students have long wondered about their routines and the work they do on the fourth floor. Do they ever sleep? Do they ever stop working? Do they ever have fun?

Occasionally, Jen McConnell reports, some architecture students get out of the studio and have fun. "You have to know when to take the night off and just get out of the whole situation," McConnell, a third year student, says. "Sometimes ­ when we're up in the studio and not really working on something ­ we get to relax."

McConnell's never considered changing her major, even though Kent State's five-year architecture program is grueling. There are three projects per semester, and each project requires five or six preliminary models. On top of that, most students complete two or three hours of homework nightly.

"If you have a project, you spend eight hours, if not more, in the studio," McConnell says. And most students average five or six hours in the studio, even when no projects are due.

Besides the long hours, project expenses add to the stress. Many students build five or six preliminary models, costing between $50 and $60. Final models cost around $40 to build, and there's no guarantee a student won't have to spend more on incidentals.

Then there are worries about project accidents. Blueprints have been known to get blown out of the fourth-floor windows.

"I've seen it. The wind just picks them up," McConnell says. "Suddenly you hear someone running down the stairs screaming. Everyone watches from the window and you try to tell them where they went."

Part of being an architecture student is designing original stress relievers. Some stress relievers ­ such as hurling X-acto blades into the ceiling ­ can be dangerous. "No one ever takes them down," McConnell says about the hundreds of long blades protruding from the ceiling. "They might have been up there for years."

Some have more playful ways of relieving stress. For instance, when the cleaning crews move the desks against one wall to wax the floor, the entire open length of the fourth floor becomes a giant playground. Impromptu hockey or baseball games are organized by procrastinating students.

Simply making noise makes McConnell feel better. "I've had screaming matches with partners," she says.

Since Taylor Hall's fourth floor is lit up most nights, some may think architecture students rarely leave the building. But break times come and go.

"Sometimes you're working late and all of the sudden at 1 a.m. you get all sorts of ideas," McConnell says. "People work better at different times. A lot of people work better late at night, but I work better in the morning." These constant "shift changes" make it appear as if the architecture students are always at work in the fourth floor studio.

McConnell was prepared for the stress of architecture before she began Kent State's program. "They tell you to plan to spend your life here," she says. "Don't plan on having a boyfriend or a job. I came expecting it to be this way."

Nevertheless, she adds, "Nobody can ever tell you how much it can take out of you. Nobody can prepare you for that."