Johnson and two roommates share a little known apartment in the far corner of East Campus's Animal Science Complex.Their furnished three bedrooms, living room and kitchen are tucked between the horse arena and livesto
CASSANDRA THOMAS / For the Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Sunday, November 30, 2008 6:00 pm
Most students bundle up in warm winter coats before they head to class.
Luke Johnson can wear shorts and slippers if he wants to.
“There are some days I never leave the building,” said the diversified agriculture senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Johnson and two roommates share a little known apartment in the far corner of East Campus’s Animal Science Complex.
Their furnished three bedrooms, living room and kitchen are tucked between the horse arena and livestock pens, and they pay just $100 a month each.
No smell of manure leaks beneath their doorway, no raging parties next door, no tales of bad roommates — a dream living arrangement for any college kid.
But for these farm boys, it’s heaven.
The only catch, they’re always on call.
“Its not a big deal, though,” said Bret Leibhart, a senior agronomy major. “Rarely do you ever get called in the middle of the night to take care of a problem.”
Johnson, Leibhart and roommate Dan Goff work for animal science livestock operations manager Clyde Naber. They earn about $7.50 an hour cleaning pens, watering the arena and hauling animals for research.
“We’ve met a wide variety of people who come through the back door of Animal Science,” said Goff, a senior ag economics major who has lived in the building for more than three years.
“I have even been introduced to the Lincoln SWAT team.”
Two years ago, a steer broke loose and was shot by the SWAT team in a pasture near Wal-Mart on North 27th Street.
And a couple of weeks ago, a unruly steer set off the fire alarm and the entire Lincoln fire department showed up on their doorstep.
Loose animals are rare, though, and the three men live relatively uneventful lives in the Animal Science Complex. After all, they aren’t party animals — they just lie next to them.
Cassandra Thomas is a senior from Decatur majoring in ag journalism. She wrote this story for a class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications.