Balancing work, school and a social life can be trying, and paying for college can be an ordeal all its own. Some Iowa State students have found a solution to both problems in tending bar.

Andy Black, junior in fine arts, has worked as a bartender for most of his college career. He spent two and a half years behind the bar at The Maintenance Shop in the Memorial Union. For the last year and a half, he has worked at Whiskey River, 132 Main St., where he is now the manager and in charge of seven other student bartenders.

“We usually prefer to hire students,” he said, “but it’s nice to have both [students and nonstudents] so the hours are covered. We have a good mix of age groups so a variety of bartenders helps keep a variety of customers.”

Bridget Moran, senior in Spanish, has worked at People’s Bar and Grill, 2428 Lincoln Way, for the last year and said the benefits are plentiful.

“People’s is where I go to drink when I’m off,” she said. “We don’t pay cover, we don’t have to wait in line and we get cheap drinks.”

Crystal Harrison, senior in design, has worked at Cy’s Roost, 121 Welch Ave., for three years, and she said it is convenient, but as graduation gets closer, she is ready for a change.

“The schedule here at Cy’s works with the student schedule,” she said. “Bartending pays the bills, but since I’ve worked here so long, I’d like to get a nine to five job.”

The job has good parts and bad, Harrison said.

“We have a college bar so we have our overly rowdy binge-drinking pukers,” she said. “The cleaning aspect sucks and dealing with people who get too drunk and can’t behave, but basically everybody is trying to have a good time, and they ruin it for the others.”

Black said there isn’t as much trouble as most people think there is, but sometimes customers do get out of line.

“If you step in and ask them to cool off, they will usually back off because you’ve been serving all night — it’s kind of a personal thing,” he said. “But the reason I like this bar is because it’s a good mix, and the customers really do get along.”

Black said being a bartender can be a good way to have fun and see people doing things they wouldn’t normally do. Stories can range from the mundane to the bizarre.

“There was one night we had a bachelorette party with about five women, and they wanted to bring in a male stripper,” he said. “My first response was ‘no way,’ but the owner thought it would be all right. The rest of the bar just kind of stood there with their mouths wide open, and I just tried to ignore it.”

Harrison’s most memorable bartending experience came a year and a half ago.

“One time we had a huge blackout, and we were tending bar by candlelight,” she said, “that was pretty cool.”

Bartending also gives students a chance to be creative by inventing drinks and shots, Black said.

“The wildest shot we make is called an ‘army of darkness,'” he said. “It’s made out of any kind of liquor that you hate. A bartender and I made it up. If you hate gin, rum and vodka, that’s what’s in it.”

Harrison said the strangest shot she makes is always the one people buy for their friends on the 21st birthday.

“We get a lot of 21-year-olds on their birthdays,” she said, “and their friends try to make them puke any way possible. My favorite drink to make for other people is anything fast. I like vodka lemonade.”

Moran said she likes the notoriety that comes with serving up drinks for her fellow students.

“I know everyone’s face and everyone knows me,” she said. “When I walk across campus, people are always asking me who is playing or what the drink specials are for that night.”

One thing Moran said she doesn’t like about her job is people who don’t tip.

“You get people who give you a quarter,” she said. “Sometimes, you get people who want the quarter back, and that is frustrating. It’s like, ‘Would it really kill you to give me a quarter?'”

Moran said some students are big tippers.

“Some students tip well, though, even if they don’t have money,” Moran said, “it’s usually the ones you don’t expect it from.”

In spite of what some people might think, tending bar doesn’t necessarily put one at risk for over indulging in the sauce, Black said.

“I don’t personally feel at risk for drinking too much, but some people do,” he said. “When I’m not here I don’t drink. I don’t drink that much when I’m here either.”

Black did admit that some bartenders he’s known have developed a drinking problem.

“It’s easy to get sucked into that kind of drinking and alcoholism. It’s very accessible, and at some point you wake up and realize that you have to have seven beers a day or you start to get the twitches,” he said.