On call with a Resident Advisor

8 p.m. -- Sophomore RA Allie Pirolli rushed out of the shower at 7:50 p.m. in preparation for her 8 o'clock shift at Fayerweather dorm. She quickly pulled her hair back in a ponytail and hurried down the hall to call into her boss, hall director Mark Lane.

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On the main office door, she scribbled her name and room number and drew an arrow pointing to her room down the hall. After a brief message to Lane, Pirolli grabbed her equipment for the shift: a Nextel and a beeper.

"The Nextel has contacts to all the dorms and the police," Pirolli explained, "and the beeper we don't really use. It connects us to the police and we can get a page from another dorm, but we usually just use the Nextel."

Pirolli walked her first of three rounds through the dorm using her senses to detect any wrongdoing that might be going on behind closed doors.

While cruising the hallways, Pirolli listened for loud discussions within the rooms, which could suggest alcohol consumption within, and sniffed for marijuana.

In her first year as an RA, Pirolli said she has dealt with mostly drinking citations.

"I like being an RA," Pirolli said, "I thought it would be tougher. It gets kind of boring when you're on call, but I really can't complain."

Fayerweather -- which houses mostly first-year students (men and women) -- is pretty calm on Wednesday nights and Pirolli wasn't anticipating any problems when she started her shift.

Pirolli said she would be on call until 7 a.m. and would make her last round at 11 p.m. During that round she would ask those with open doors to kindly shut them. After the round, she would return to her room for the rest of her shift, hoping for quiet and calm.