UI’s new student organization, Night Crew, shares their late night philosophy
With a slogan like “Start at 1, Get it Done,” the University of Idaho student club Night Crew is no-nonsense when it comes to staying up late.
In the 11th floor lounge of Theophilus Tower, Night Crew stomping grounds, members Benjamin Quintana, Patrick Krinke, Shaundra Herrud and Alex Wezensky of this new late-night student organization sit down to talk about their newfound group.
Benjamin Quintana | Courtesy
Members of Night Crew meet in the 11th floor lounge of Theophilus Tower for nightly discussions on life.
Night Crew began as an informal gathering of happenstance at the beginning of 2014-2015 school year when 10 honors students decided to stay up until 3 a.m. on a weekday.
“It started off as this little group of people meeting,” Krinke said. “It wasn’t official — we just said it was Night Crew. That’s kind of how it got started is just people meeting, and then we were like, ‘You know, we should just make this a club.'”
Quintana said the point of the club is to have fun, talk about group problems or just share thoughts on whatever topic is brought up. Conversations range from serious discussions to brainstorming ideas to solving various issues going on in the world or on campus. They even go out on food runs to the Bagel Shop, McDonald’s or Shari’s for pie shakes.
“We talk about controversial topics that you normally wouldn’t bring up in conversation with people unless you were in a comfortable environment,” Krinke said. “You just come in with an open mind and leave with new information or you learn something — it’s just really cool, just philosophical talks all night.”
The group consists of independent, specifically-minded people who have strong opinions, Herrud said. This dynamic helps spread ideas around and opens up deeper conversations, because not everyone agrees with each other — it doesn’t necessarily lead to a debate, but rather an intellectual discussion, Krinke said.
Aside from nightly meetings, the club often attends events together and the members hang out with each other throughout the day. The group is currently making their way through the “Game of Thrones” series and completed a “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” marathon prior to the premiere of “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” last December.
To run with this crew, members need to be ready for a late night and have a bedtime not long before the sun rises.”We’ve stayed up till 6 (a.m.) before talking and then we had class at 8 (a.m.),” Krinke said.
Herrud said if it’s 4 a.m. when she’s going to bed, she knows it is going to be a bad morning, but if it’s before 4 a.m. she is good to go.
“It’s for a lot of people who like staying up late — that’s the main thing about the club,” Krinke said. “It’s an open discussion club, but the reason we started it was simply because we were up late — at least 1 o’clock generally — fully functioning, not tired and we wanted to do something.”
Some of Night Crew’s most stimulating conversations have been over hot topics, such as underage drinking or religion, according to Quintana.
“We talked about the origins of your religion — not what your religious beliefs are now, but how you’ve come to form those (beliefs),” Herrud said.
Night Crew holds people accountable for their beliefs, which may come off strong, but it challenges the members to speak their mind about why they believe such things, Krinke said.
Herrud said when someone is forced to defend their opinion, it allows them to evaluate it, and they either realize there have doubts or they’re more comfortable with their beliefs.
“People find out who they are,” Krinke said. “That’s kind of what college is, and Night Crew is just one of those methods of finding out who you are within college.”
With meetings almost every night, there is no limit to the possibilities of conversations or activities the Night Crew can get into.
“There (was) one night where we stayed up for three hours looking at our old Facebook photos and figuring out what people looked like in high school,” Krinke said. “It was funny just going back and looking at what people looked like in middle school and high school and then how much they’ve changed now.”
Night Crew is now a tight-knit community. The group often spends extra time or regular group meetings playing video games, doing laundry, going grocery shopping or attending events around campus.
Currently, Night Crew is only made up of freshmen students, most of which are in the honors program. But they are eager to open up their club to all students who share the same love of staying up late, Krinke said.
Emily Vaartstra can be reached at [email protected]