Story and photo by Oscar Daniel Jimenez Iniguez
Students with tutors, leaders and staff got a chance to fight back against procrastination before finals week at the Cooperative Learning Center’s “Long Night Against Procrastination,” a late-night event on Dec. 8.
The event had on-the-go tutors and staff helping students who came in for different subjects, along with an interactive button-making and Lego-building table, accompanied by free stress toys, all intended to help relieve stress.
John Dekta, the science coordinator for the CLC, believes that the event’s focus was not on procrastination itself but instead on fostering an environment that helps to challenge students’ notions about overcoming procrastination in spite of the heavy workloads they may have.
“We try to create conditions that are conducive to overcoming procrastination. And a big part of that is community. It’s this shared struggle, bringing students together to work together, not to commiserate, but to kind of celebrate,” said Dekta. “We’re headed into finals and everybody has been working so hard and may be a little disconnected from each other. So it’s actually a way to rebuild some, some strength in the community.
“People here have some pretty high stakes assignments to do right now, and so it’s really about helping those people acquire a model for dealing with the stresses of uncertainty but yet still moving forward,” Dekta added, “which I guess by definition is courage.”