Today: Mar 29, 2024

Bundling up with blankets

Wula Cham Copy Editor

On Sunday, March 6, the Office of Residence Life hosted an event where students were invited to come to make fleece tie blankets. The theme of the event was surrounding the topic of sleep awareness and the importance of sleep. The event was held in the Farnham Programming Space (FPS).  

“As we know, college students don’t often get sleep, from long study nights and different life circumstances. So, to get them to get more sleep, we sort of motivate them with fleece tie blankets so that they can wrap up, bundle up and feel the need to take a nap with the new blanket,” said Program development and LLC graduate intern Asha Sneed.  

Students swiped their cards for identification purposes and were then encouraged to scan a QR code to answer the questions provided upon entry. The questions asked students about the basic intelligence on sleep. There was a slide show displaying facts and intel about sleep on the screens of the room. Some of the answers to the questions of the survey were provided inside the slideshow so that students would be able to educate themselves on the questions they might have missed when they took the first survey. After making their blankets and taking a snack for the road, the students were requested to take the survey again. The purpose of this survey is to see if the students learned anything new about the topic of sleep from when they walked to the time, they leave the event.  

This event was a collaboration between Residence Life and the Program Planning class led by Dr. Debra Risisky, a faculty member of public health.  

“Today is Strengthening Sunday. We are hosting the fleece tie blanket program, in conjunction with our public health majors and they are essentially giving students information about sleep health, “said Sneed.  

Strengthening Sunday, hence the name is the theme name for events hosted by Residence Life on Sundays for the main purpose of supporting and encouraging students through their semester. The events are mostly encompassing providing students a chance to take a break and relax. 

“What my students do for program planning class is we come in and kinda upgrade it a little bit. This is an event that happens every week, but my students come in for a couple of weeks and they are doing some education, to kinda make it a little more of an educational program. They are evaluating and this is their semester-long course project,” said Risisky.  

According to Risisky, the class teaches students to make programs and evaluate them. Throughout the event, some students can be seen walking around criticizing and analyzing the event. The students looked amazingly well dressed and were very professional during the duration of the event. There were even some walking around and holding conversations with the students that came to the event in hopes of providing more knowledge on sleep to the students and making sure that they are taking good care of themselves. 

When asked if she expected this turn out of people, public health major Zaavia Ansari, a junior, said, “I was expecting less, to be honest. It’s a Sunday and it’s like 7 p.m. People are usually coming back from their houses back to their dorms.” 

Zaavia is part of the group working with Residence life for this Strengthening Sunday event and shocking enough, she has never made a fleece tie blanket but is willing to try.  

“I would definitely come to more events like this,” said exercise science major Ella G. Maclean, a freshman, when asked about her thoughts on the events as she was finishing up her blanket.

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