Christmas ‘break’ can just mean work

Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

In a study lounge that doubles as a social gathering place at Nevada State College, a security guard stands, surveying the room.

Three-foot-wide bean bags are plopped, all lonely, on the floor. The lollygagging students who usually occupy them are gone. A flat-screen TV is switched off.

It is the front end of winter break, and the whole building lies silent.

Silent, with a few exceptions. Exceptions like Tony Scinta, chairman of social sciences, who meanders down an upstairs hallway wearing a crumpled blue sweat shirt, his head buried in some half-inch-thick document.

Vacation is a staple of college life, the long-awaited time of freedom after finals. So what were stragglers like Scinta still doing around?

Well, a number of things.

Scinta was busy proofreading a paper laying out what students should achieve by the time they graduate with a psychology degree. He had a few phone calls to make to students regarding grade appeals, and then planned to head out.

The reason he was still hanging around: "too much work or too much procrastination."

"Pretty soon I'll be starting my Christmas shopping," he said.

He'd already bought stuff for colleagues (one wanted mechanical pencils and bookends - "not supersexy," Scinta said), but had yet to begin the "big-time" gift buying for family members and the girlfriend.

Evidence of the impending holiday, including a paper bag adorned with a smiling Santa and a fuzzy red-and-blue Transformers tote from co-workers, was scattered across Scinta's desk.

But most of his fellow faculty members appeared to be long gone - sad for Scinta, who enjoys the college's "work hard, play hard" atmosphere.

"If I want to talk to someone," he lamented, "there is no one here."

If he'd made his way downstairs, though, he might have found Annette Portillo, who teaches ethnic studies and English. She had homemade rum balls and cookies sitting on her desk and had come to school to plan for a 2 1/2-week online course she'll be teaching in January.

Unlike Scinta, "I like the quiet," she said. "I like that there's no disruptions while I'm preparing."

"I will be here on Christmas Day," she added. She was born and raised in San Diego, and chose to stay in Las Vegas for the holiday because she had too much work to do.

A few miles away, at the College of Southern Nevada's Henderson campus, the only students still hanging around were from CSN High School, which enrolls kids in high school and college classes.

Naomi Okada, a junior wearing an army print Santa hat, was reading up on modern world literature while waiting for a ride.

She had plans to go up to Tahoe during the break, but expected to spend much of her time there studying.

"I'm taking some hard classes, and I'd like to get ahead," said Okada, who is pondering a career in epidemiology.

"I just want to do something important with my life."

Despite the holiday lull, many college staffers and students say they'll be using the days between academic terms productively.

UNLV, for one, has been experiencing no shortage of activity.

Faculty members, hunched in their offices, have taken advantage of the calm to complete paperwork and final grading. Graduate students are conducting research. Administrators who bustled across campus finishing up meetings last week said they hoped to squeeze in work over the rest of the break.

Last Friday, even the governor made an appearance, stopping by for commencement.

Many students, often maligned as apathetic, even took the time to boo the state's top man, who has asked higher education to slash its budget.