Stress Less Fest disappoints goat-loving students

January is a tough month and for students, and it’s made even worse by exam period.

Memorising seemingly random formulas, rifling through countless flashcards of meaningless words. You spend the month either freezing, panicking, or struggling to keep up with those dreaded New Year’s resolutions we’re all supposed to make.

In come SUSU. The Student Union have run some excellent events during exams over the past few years, a so-called ‘Stress Less Fest’, which in the last few years has reminded us that petting animals is pretty good, and putting off revision to watch a DVD box set is okay if you’re on campus.

This year, the ‘Stress Less Fest’ has continued fruitfully, with a gigantic stash of bananas and the urge to take a break from/neglect studies and watch Friends, that sitcom that everyone seems to have watched.

Beckie Thomas, SUSU’s VP Welfare Officer, explained the idea:

This January we focussed on impacting as many students as possible, giving away 4,000 fair trade bananas at Hartley library, NOC, SGH, WSA and Avenue campus. 

We also wanted to create a relaxed environment on the concourse for students to take a break from revision and assignments by showing ‘Friends’ on the big screen everyday. 

So, having got one portion of your five a day (or is it seven?), and having had a bit of a chortle along to one of your favourite series, you’ve probably forgotten you’re in the midst of some very important exams.

In this sense it’s nice to receive anything at all, so free bananas and access to a boxset is appreciated.

But could SUSU be doing more to help us through this fortnight of struggle?

The petting zoos and dance classes of last year are but a distant memory by now. We are told that the zoo will return in May, but those students trudging through exam season in the hope of goat-based therapy will be rightly disappointed this January.

Some students aren’t even impressed with the quality of the bananas.

While SUSU is a big organisation with a big reach and thousands of members, even lowly writers at the Soton Tab have Netflix accounts and a bowl of fruit. There must be other ways SUSU can help us de-stress!

The Greatest of All Time

So if you’re reading, SUSU powers that be, please give us our goats back.

If anyone has any ideas as to how they’d like SUSU to help them destress before summer exams, Beckie encourages you to email her at [email protected].