It's close to 10 p.m. and for six Kent State students, it's another ordinary night at work. Nick Argentiero is at Eastway washing dishes for what seems like the 500th time that night. Jennie Griveas is scanning the pages of tomorrow's Daily Kent Stater, waiting for a dozen frantic reporters to finish their stories before the midnight deadline. Tami Rathburn is walking the halls of Leebrick hall, keeping her eye out for misbehaving students who often hide from her burgundy jacket marked "Security." Kathleen Raumberger, wearing an infamous orange jacket, is dodging puddles as she checks for illegally parked cars. Brad Opsincs is sitting in his apartment grading a stack of papers written by his freshmen orientation students. And Jim Reimer is acting as the mediator between two angry roommates who until 10 minutes ago were the best of friends.

Finding the time to study, exercise, eat, sleep and breathe isn't the easiest thing for a busy college student to do. Now add a part - or even full-time job to that equation. And some Kent State students have the extra pleasure of holding what could be the hardest jobs on this campus.

"Hardest" is a subjective term, but the basic parameters are clear. They are the jobs that make the workers into enemies, the jobs that involve constant controversy and the jobs that evoke a disgusted "eeeww." In fact, they are the jobs that make one wonder just why a person would ever choose to do them at all.

Let's start with the obvious. Two words: Parking Services. These five syllables strike fear in the hearts of some, anger in the hearts of many. No one enjoys finding one of the infamous yellow envelopes containing a parking ticket on the windshield. However, according to two members of the parking patrol, some people take getting a ticket very personally.

Sophomore Kathleen Raumberger, 20, says she has encountered several very irate parking violators during her three semesters as a parking services employee.

One night in late January, Raumberger and another employee of the parking patrol ticketed a vehicle in a 15-minute parking space. "The student we ticketed happened to get back to his car just as we were leaving," Raumberger says. "He started screaming obscenities at us and chased us on foot and by vehicle. When we stopped at another lot, he tried to trap our truck into a space. I don't know what would have happened if my partner didn't know how to drive."

Raumberger, a biology and pre-veterinary medicine major, says the student followed them back to the office in the Michael Schwartz Center and was detained by the campus police. No charges were filed against the student, but the police made him apologize to Raumberger and his partner.

Violence is not a problem of all student jobs. Some have much simpler and safer difficulties.

"Pay is the biggest issue," says Nick Argentiero, student manager at Eastway cafeteria. "The job is not bad in the sense that I'm working at Eastway, but for food services as a whole. I don't think any of the food services employees get paid enough for the work we do."

Argentiero, a senior business management major, has been a student manager at Eastway for 3 1/2 years. His job requires him to be familiar with every position, including stocking, preparing and cooking the food, and cashiering.

Argentiero says there is "no incentive pay to stay in the regular jobs." He feels this leads to a high turnover rate and occasional low staffing, which both result in extra stress. Also, Argentiero says part of the job description is having an "Eastway smell" when he gets home. "It's a greasy, smoky smell. I have to shower immediately," he says.

Some jobs don't require a shower, but instead necessitate a major schedule readjustment and loss of sleep.

"We tell people that if you can't handle the hours, don't apply for the job," Campus Security Supervisor Tami Rathburn says. Rathburn, a senior criminal justice and geology major, says staying motivated is a common problem among security personnel. Residence halls are patrolled between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m., making it essential for a patroller to adjust sleeping and study habits.

"Once you are used to the hours, the job isn't bad at all," she says

Security guards also are responsible for closing Taylor Hall for the night, a task that sometimes requires kicking some architecture students out of the fourth floor lab. "We usually just tell them to go home and get something to eat or a nap, and they generally take it pretty well," Rathburn says.

Architecture majors are not the only people who spend a great deal of time in Taylor Hall.

"I pretty much live here," says Jennie Griveas, editor of The Daily Kent Stater. Griveas, 21, says editing the Stater is definitely a demanding job, but "it's not the hardest on this campus. There are a lot of students who work just as hard or harder."

Griveas, a senior, is responsible for finding any mistakes made in the newspaper and for dealing with the backlash of complaints from upset faculty, staff and students.

"The things that get to me the most are when little things go wrong, like a misspelling in a story," she says. "It's annoying when so many people here work so hard to get everything right."

Despite the hard work and long hours, Griveas says she loves her job. She is compensated out of Stater profits on a monthly basis.

Not all difficult jobs come with a salary.

Junior Brad Opsincs, 21, says, "Teaching new student orientation is hard because your students don't want to be there - they have to be there."

Opsincs, an elementary education major, says orientation teachers get credit for their work but no pay.

"The time you put in with your students is totally rewarding, despite being demanding," he says. "You try to get them involved, show them the reasoning for the class and incorporate your own ideas into how you teach."

Opsincs has a demanding task, especially on top of other obligations shared by all college students. But at the end of the class period, he is no longer responsible for his students.

Some jobs require almost non-stop attention.

"The hardest part of being a resident assistant is that it is a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week responsibility," says senior technology major Jim Reimer. Reimer is an R.A. in the First Year Experience area.

"It can get a little wild because it's all freshmen," he says. "But my biggest gripe would be all the meetings and committees that weren't spelled out before I started the job." Reimer, 22, says he is expected to attend several meetings a week.

"That stuff can take up a lot of your time."

Another drawback to being an R.A. in the First Year experience area is that Small Group is so far away from central campus.

"It's a good 20-minute walk from everywhere I have to be," Reimer says. "I've come to love the Campus Bus Service."

Campus Security Supervisor Tami Rathburn makes her rounds through the residence halls.

Angry parking violators, bad pay, late and long hours, uncooperative students and a really long walk don't sound like a ton of fun. Yet every student interviewed also mentioned something good about his or her difficult job.

"It's not all that bad once you get used to it," was a running theme in each job description.

Essentially, the students doing the jobs that make others wonder why they'd even consider doing them have adjusted to the rigors of their duties. They have found the time to succeed at their demanding jobs, and sometimes they also get to study, exercise, eat, sleep and breathe.