Student Services, CAB work to relieve finals week stress

Stress levels can be high as students prepare for the final days of the fall semester; however, USD Student Services and the Campus Activities Board have created a game plan to battle the risk of stress overload.

From Crossfit exercises to a play day with puppies, each activity is scheduled to adhere to almost all schedules.

“We’re going to start on Sunday (Dec. 6) even though that’s not technically finals week yet, but we know that students are already in finals mode,” said Lindsay Sparks, the director of Student Services. “So we have a football watch party that night and a procrastination night.”

Student Services starts planning these events about a month prior, Sparks added. This way they can reserve rooms and plan what kind of foods they’ll need for each event.

Most of the events take place in the MUC Pit Lounge. However, the Crossfit night – “Sweat the Stress Away” – is located at the Wellness Center and the showing of “Christmas Vacation” on Dec. 11 is at the Vermillion Movie Theater.

“We sat down, looked at what events we hosted last year and together we discussed what events we wanted to host again and brainstormed other events we could host,” said graduate Student Services assistant Taylor Vavra.

The finals week activities have grown to include more over the past two years as students and Student Services work to come up with new ways to relieve stress for those that are drowning in studies.

“It’s nice to just get crafty and relax during finals,” said sophomore criminal justice major Savannah Murray.

Students are able to give feedback and suggestions to improve or expand final week, Sparks said.

“As the fall finals week has gone to the split into two weeks, we’ve really just started using that Sunday prior, because it just made sense.” Sparks said. “We try to accommodate everyone’s schedules best we can.”

This year is their fullest schedule yet, Sparks added. Every day is full of events to keep the spirits up before the semester ends she added.

“Based on the numbers, we think students really seem to like our events,” Sparks said. “We do get some good ideas from students. Finals week is just a lot of fun to plan, because it’s a whole new environment where students can just go when they need a good 20 or so minutes to take a break from studying.”

The activities for finals week include ornament making, late night breakfast, cookie decorating, movie nights and creating finals week survival kits.

“I think we’re always trying to improve from the year before,” Vavra said. “We aren’t afraid to say that an event didn’t work and we are also very willing to bring back events that students enjoyed.”