There’s no better way to de-stress during finals week than to dunk your professor in a dunk tank.
Students gathered at Malcolm X Plaza this morning for the first Summer Kick-Off and Stress Relief Day, an event hosted jointly by the Recreation, Parks and Tourism department and Student Health Services. More than 40 SF State organizations participated, including Peer Educators Advocating Campus Health (P.E.A.C.H), San Francisco SPCA, Creating Empowerment through Alcohol and Substance Abuse Education (CEASE), and the Pacific Leadership Institute.
“This event was put on to increase awareness of all educational opportunities here on campus,” Erik Rosegard, associate professor of the RPT department said. “We are trying to increase that awareness through this activity.”
Some activities included free massages from students of the Holistic Health Institute, trivia questions to claim free Jamba Juice smoothies, students crawling on a giant ball, and a professor dunk tank where Rosegard sacrificed himself for three hours to be dunked by students.
“My class of 50 students offered to plan this event. It was put together in less than two months,” Rosegard said. “They don’t even get extra credit for this assignment.”
The class also assessed students to find out what resources they did or did not know about. So far, according to Rosegard, many students are unaware of the resources that are covered by our tuition.
“We are finding out that less than 50 percent of students know you can reserve a room in the library, that we have a swimming pool, an observatory, even a planetarium,” he said. “We’re finding out what they don’t know, what they do know, and at the same time showing them all the services that are available to them two weeks before finals.”
When asked, the most common used resource among students is the library and the Campus Academic Resource Program, or CARP. Zoë Nguyen is a third year RPT major currently enrolled in 18 units. She uses the library as a place to de-stress with her classmates and finish schoolwork.
“I use the library a lot. My major requires a lot of group work,” Nguyen said. “Being a RPT major, all we do is learn how important having fun is. The RPT department is a community with each other, and we de-stress that way.”
Some students like Jenn Azzarello participate in physical activities when managing stressful times.
“I like to take walks and I really try to manage my time well so I’m not procrastinating at the end,” the third-year RPT major said.
President Leslie E. Wong used running and exercising as a way to cope with stress during finals. He believes these types of activities and games will be a great way to raise awareness of the resources SF State has to offer.
“Because student populations are so transitory, you always have to keep (raising awareness),” Wong said. “You cannot stop telling students about the services, so the issue will be how well we can keep up that pace.”
