Some Iowa State students have found a way to make money while they spend summer days outside and meet new people — a job with the ISU grounds crew.

Campus Services hires about 40 students in the summer to work on the grounds crew, said Gary Reynolds, manager of Campus Services. About half of them are returning workers, but the position is also advertised in the Daily and posted in Beardshear Hall.

“The students do very good work for us, and we rely on them very heavily,” Reynolds said. “Most of them are excellent workers … they learn very quickly.”

Reynolds said the grounds crew does a multitude of things, from mowing and trimming to laying sod and doing construction work, prepping the campus for the return of students in the fall semester.

“Today, I rode around in a boat and scraped scum out of Lake Laverne … and fish,” said Katy Huntzinger, a sophomore in art. Her other duties include weeding beds, mowing grass, mulching, sodding and picking up trash around campus.

This summer, student workers are filling cracks on the streets, and four or five people are working on a concrete crew doing sidewalk replacements, Reynolds said. The crew is also laying sod in a variety of areas.

Planting flowers is another of the grounds crew’s responsibilities. “We’ll be doing more of that,” Reynolds said. The crew will begin planting around the day care center located near the College of Veterinary Medicine sometime in June.

Huntzinger described most of the work as easy and fun and Diane Schroeder, sophomore in genetics, agreed. “Sodding is pretty fun,” she said.

Of course, there are a few tasks nobody wants to do.” Mowing in 90-degree weather,” Schroeder said. “Somebody’s got to do it.”