[nggallery id = 54]

The digital clocks on twenty Mac computers flip to 12 a.m.

The latest issue of the Dart is finally finished after nine straight hours at publication night in adviser Eric Thomas‘s classroom.

Only a few staffers of STA’s student-run newspaper remain, but remnants of the entire staff can be seen throughout the room, according to managing editor of web Cara McClain.

Empty cups, once filled with Rooster Booster, sit on desks, left over from an after-school QuikTrip run.

A song request sheet lays on a desk, covered in names of artists such as Hilary Duff and Usher, which are scribbled in red Sharpie from earlier in the evening.

Empty chocolate cupcake wrappers and plates with drips of Alfredo sauce spill over the top of the trashcan.

Thomas, editor-in-chief Morgan Said, managing editor of print Megan Schaff and centerspread editor Madalyne Bird turn off the lights and close the door to Thomas’s classroom–leaving school for the first time since they arrived that morning.

This is the end of a typical publication night, an evening that occurs twice every three weeks when the Dart staff comes together to complete an issue of the newspaper.

According to page editor Hannah Wolf, Monday publication nights usually end around 5:30 or 6 p.m. On Tuesdays, the last staffers leave around 11 p.m., or whenever they finish the issue.

However, according to McClain, publications nights include more than staring at computer screens, writing stories and laying out page designs.

“It’s kind of like a party,” McClain said. “But like a party where you have to get something done.”

According to McClain, some publication night activities include QuikTrip runs, spontaneous staff sing-alongs and keeping watch for the moms from J@STA, the booster club of the journalism department, bringing dinner.

According to Bird, Thomas never lets anyone skip mealtime. When everyone has sat down in the second floor hallway of Donnelly Hall, with plates in their laps, Thomas reveals his hypothetical question of the night.

The questions range from “If you could put any business on campus, what would it be?” to “Would you rather: A) keep your current life and ten random people die or B) move away and never see your family or home again?”

“That’s when peoples’ true personalities really come out,” Said said. “Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the creepy.”

McClain believes things like Thomas’s hypothetical questions are necessary to maintaining peace and happiness among the staff.

“While [the questions] are completely goofy and can make you feel ridiculous, [they] are completely necessary,” McClain said. “They are what keeps us sane during those long nights.”

Hypothetical questions are not the only technique used to lower stress, according to Said. One publication night earlier this school year, when stress was building up, she and Thomas forced every staff member to play a quick inning of baseball out on the Quad.

“All of the page editors were super irritated that we were taking them away from their pages,” Said said. “But I think that once we got outside and took a break from the computers, everyone was ready to come back in and work.”

McClain believes things like baseball games and Thomas’s questions not only combat stress, but make publication nights what they are.

“I think if we were completely focused and didn’t do things like that at publication nights, sure we’d get the issue out probably twice a fast,” McClain said, “but we’d miss out on all the bonding experiences.”