Maria Canton
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Dec 20/99) - One Sunday evening, a cold draft filled the entryway of Exit G2 at Arctic College's Nunatta Residence.

The door, leading to a third-floor fire escape, was propped open with a pop can. Security guard Dennis Shappa kicked the can out of the way before shutting it tight.

That was the third door Shappa found open as he made his hourly rounds through the long, quiet hallways of the building that houses 80 college students.

"Normally there aren't any (doors) open, this is kind of strange," he said, noting the door number in his log book.

"For the most part it's pretty quiet."

Working 16 hours every weekend while finishing the final year of a two-year media communications program, Shappa says he enjoys the job because it affords him the time to devote to his homework.

"I like the amount of time I have to do my homework while I'm actually working, they encourage us to do our work on the job."

Aside from the downtime that allows him to study, Shappa, who is originally from Arctic Bay, says Friday and Saturday nights are when something is likely to occur.

"Anything can happen on those nights, you have to keep an extra eye out for smoke, loud music or fights.

"In the extreme, there may be a beating or something like that and in those cases I call the police right away," he said.

But those incidents are rare and a routine night for the security guards at the residence means ensuring guests are signed in and out, making rounds to check the 18 exits in the building, watching for smoke and loud music and letting residents in after midnight, when the doors lock.

"Guests have to go home by 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends and after midnight we lock the doors.

"When someone wants in after midnight they have to wait until we open the main doors for them and they have to have an ID card.

"If we're on our rounds then they have to wait outside until we get back to the office. After we check the first floor we always check the doors again in case someone is waiting."

Shappa says nothing too out of the ordinary has happened to him while on shift and he'd like to keep it that way.