Finals period brings desperation, and hope, to Howard University computer lab It was only the third night of finals period, and all of her banging on the keyboard did not seem to alter the fact that she was 40-plus pages into a term paper and her computer had just suddenly frozen. "I've been here since 7 a.m.,"" Alkoukbi exclaimed, a little after 7 p.m. For many college students, the end of the academic term is their first foray into pressure-filled deadlines. Few places reveal how students respond to the challenge as much as a night at the computer lab, a windowless incubator for campus stress. Finals week is when Newton's laws meet Murphy's Law. Students crumble over the stress. Computers break down. So do their owners. Even with today's tech-savvy generation, the labs are as stressful as ever, staff members at Howard say. Students sometimes get embarrassed by what they don't know. "They have to learn it's not like when they are trying to use a printer at home," said Santos Ramos, a help desk support staff member at Howard. They are now a part of a big, complex system. Ramos has tended to problems great and small in the iLab for two years. He is seated in the center of this quiet madness in an elevated station resembling a rocket ship. At iLab command, he has been yelled at for paper jams and ignored when telling students they can't eat chips in here. Loaning his stapler can yield the highest praise. The little things. Sometimes, students throw tantrums. When a student pulled out an iPhone to call her boo for encouragement, another snapped at her for being too loud. One couldn't figure out how to put page numbers on her essay. "I don't want someone to show me how to do it,"" she declared. I just want it done. Alkoukbi is a doctoral student in education administration, familiar with the routines of academia. Ramos's help-desk staff members told her to relax and wait five minutes - and then, the computer unfroze. "I just get so worried,"" she said. What a relief. One floor below the computer lab, two other staff members sat in a graveyard of computer parts and Post-it notes. Their mission: Cure the campus's most nefarious computer viruses, including one that replaces the desktop screen with an FBI logo and triggers on the Web cam, making the student feel under surveillance. More people seek help at the start of the year, at registration. But then, there's hope. During finals week, there's desperation. They ask: Do you know what's wrong? Can you fix it now? Is there nothing more you can do? What did I do in life to have this happen? Why did I download the video? Why did I wait until the last minute?