Pitt Program Council aims to ease finals stress

It’s the only thing standing between Pitt students and four months of summer — a time of… It’s the only thing standing between Pitt students and four months of summer — a time of Scantron sheets, late-night cram sessions and hours in front of computer screens churning out papers.

In other words: It’s time for finals.

And there’s one University group attempting to pull students away from their textbooks, at least for a little while.

Finals Survival Week is a series of programs meant to ease the pressure of that builds up as the semester dwindles down. Running this coming Monday through Friday — the week before scheduled finals — the Pitt Program Council’s events will offer a variety of stress relievers, including a spa day and a tie-dye session.

“It’s meant to provide free activities that are stress-free for students so they can release their stress before finals and have things to do other than those related to school,” said Rachel Kasab, recently elected director of the public relations committee.

Students can find a full schedule of events on the Pitt Program Council’s website, www.pitt.edu/~ppc/.

Kasab said that between 30 and 50 students generally attend each event, with larger numbers turning out for the craft events.

“My favorite is Day at the Spa because, why wouldn’t you want to go and get a free haircut/manicure for free when you typically spend so much money on it? We bring in technicians for students for free,” Kasab said.

Sophomore Samantha Jones is exactly the type of stressed out student Pitt Program Council hopes to assist. She said the first word that comes to mind when she thinks about the coming weeks is “overwhelm.”

“It’s always stressful. A lot of other schools have a dead week to study, but we don’t have that. I feel like we would do a lot better if we had that,” Jones said.

She said that it is unlikely that she will attend any of the Pitt Program Council’s Finals Survival events.

“That’s valuable time that I could be studying,” Jones said.

But she did express interest in attending the viewing of “Paranormal Activity 2” on Monday at 9 p.m. in the William Pitt Union.

“If I’m scared out of my mind, I won’t be able to sleep — which means that that is more time that I can stay awake studying,” Jones said.

Freshman Ashley Mayo shared similar sentiments, saying that she’d prefer to study rather than attend the events.

“I might stop by the s’mores night for a midnight snack though,” Mayo said.

The Pitt Program Council will hold the s’mores night in conjunction with an Open Mic Night in Nordy’s Place at 9 p.m. Thursday.

Though many students can’t find the time to pull themselves away from their books, others such as junior Brittany Robertson said they see the events as a retreat.

“I think that these are necessary. Sometimes people study too hard or too long and get really stressed out, so sometimes it’s good to take a break and do something fun and get your mind right for studying again,” Robertson said.