Stress mounts as semester comes to a close

Students pet the therapy dogs on hand at UT's Stressfest.

College students are feeling stressed as the end of the school year approaches, but there are campus resources available to help ease the pressure.

Therapy pets, an impromptu yoga class and massage chairs were sprawled across the porch of the Flawn Academic Center to help students relax as the spring semester crawls to a close at the University of Texas at Austin.

These attractions and more were part of UT’s 15^th annual Stressfest on April 11. The UT Counseling and Mental Health Center hosted the event, which is designed to provide students with tips on how to stay healthy and manage stress as time runs out and pressure mounts.

Students enjoyed free ice-water slushes as they made their way around the porch to get helpful advice on stress and talk with trained professionals on hand for the event.

Dr. Laura Ebady, a CMHC staff psychologist and event coordinator, estimated Stressfest’s turnout to be well over 2,000, the biggest gathering the event has ever seen.

“Our goal was to provide a variety of booths and activities in order to appeal to everyone and any type of stress, whether it be emotional, academic or health stress,” said Ebady.

With final assignments, essays and exams on the horizon, students are more stressed out than ever as they struggle to find time to do homework and study.

“I have two presentations, four tests and three papers due in the next two weeks and I work seven out of the next 12 days. I am so close to bursting right now,” said Rebecca Keys, a German sophomore.

Eighty-five percent of students said they felt stressed in their daily lives, according to a Health Central poll conducted this month. Students said that they were concerned with their school and work performance as well as money and relationship issues on a daily basis.

Forty-two percent of the students polled said they had felt depressed or hopeless for several days prior to the poll. More than half of those who reported seriously considering suicide had not received treatment or counseling when these feelings had arisen.

These statistics are a large part of what drives the CMHC to host Stressfest each year. The fest helps to spread awareness about the seriousness of stress and inform students about the ways in which the health center can help students relieve stress.

The CMHC provides UT students with several options to combat stress including individual counseling and free, confidential therapy groups and classes. The health center also offers a 24-hour telephone counseling service available every day of the year, including holidays as well as a special “stress recess” website. The website provides students with the opportunity to follow a specific guided program dependent upon his or her level of stress.

“I found the counseling service at UT to be very helpful. The counselor I met with was open and adept and really helped me sort out my priorities. I tend to worry and stress out about things a lot and the session helped me calm down,” said Madison Gessner, a communications junior.

Dr. Catherine Ford, an Austin-based psychologist, says stress is common for college students, who juggle school, work, friends, family and extracurricular activities all while making important life choices.

Ford suggests that students try to lead a well-rounded life in order to reduce their level of stress.

“The body is the foundation of emotional well-being, so sleep, good nutrition and exercise are all important. The busier you are, the more you need these things,” said Ford.

Ford also encourages students to try to not put off work and to remember to take breaks as needed.

“Ask yourself, in a month, what will I wish I had done right now? What is most important really?” said Ford.

Stress isn’t always easily handled; it can take a serious turn. Students can crumble under piles of schoolwork and the pressure to do well. Combined with peer pressure and homesickness, students may become depressed, have a panic attack, or contemplate suicide.

“If someone is feeling anxious or panicky, I would suggest counseling and learning mindfulness and relaxation techniques. Panic is scary, but not dangerous,” said Ford.

When stress leads to more serious situations, Ford recommends calling the telephone counseling service and visiting the health center as soon as possible.

“If someone is feeling so overwhelmed that they are considering suicide, the most important first step is to assure their immediate safety,” said Ford.

However, a lesser degree of stress isn’t bad, explains Dr. Blain Carr, an Austin-based psychologist.

“Some stress can be healthy because it motivates the person to accomplish goals or to get things done. It becomes unhealthy when the stress causes some significant problem in your life or makes things worse,” said Carr.

Rent in Austin on the rise

Rent in Austin has risen by 4.2 percent over the last few months. With rent on the rise, students at the University of Texas at Austin may find themselves on a tighter budget.

The cost of living off campus in Austin for the average UT student has increased by 23 percent in the last five years, according to the Office of Student Financial Services.

In 2007, the cost of living for an off-campus resident averaged out to $4,236 per semester. This number has risen to $5,211 per semester in 2012.

West Campus is home to around 8,000 to 10,000 residents, many of them students who want to live close to the university, said Deacon Shields, a broker and owner of Ely Properties, a real estate agency, which owns much of the West Campus real estate.

According to the Austin Apartment Association, residents of West Campus can expect their rent to increase by $50 to $150 in the near future, if it hasn’t already happened.

With tuition on the rise and a recovering economy, students are more strapped for cash than ever. Adding higher rent to the list is likely to bring more financial stress upon students.

“I am really stressed out right now. [Apartment management] is trying to raise my rent by $200 a month and I don’t think I’ll be able to afford it,” said Madison Gessner, a communications junior.

Gessner currently lives at the Triangle in North Campus, where she shares a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment with one roommate.

“I’m going to have to start looking for a new place to live if I can’t reach a compromise with my complex,” Gessner said. “Even with help from my dad, I would have to use all my extra spending money for rent.”

When Gessner asked what the reason for the increase in rent was, the Triangle responded that the proposed price was the new market value for the property. According to the Triangle, plenty of people are itching to lease with them and they are more than willing to pay the new price.

After meeting with a Triangle property manager, Gessner was able to wrestle her rent down to $1715 from $1770, but this still makes her rent $150 more than it was last year.

“A lot of my friends have been struggling. I know a lot of people that have had to add roommates to continue living where they are,” said Vicky Nguyen, a pre-pharmacy sophomore.

According to the Austin Apartment Association, market value increases are due to rising interest in living in Austin and a lack of apartment complex construction in the past few years.

Austin has become increasingly desirable over the past few years. The vibrant capital city has become a center for culture, business, technology and education, attracting college students, young entrepreneurs, and families alike.

As the population in Austin increases, real estate will become more expensive as people compete to live near the center of the city, the Austin Apartment Association cautioned. With a lack of complex construction in the past few years, property is in high demand.

Lack of apartment complex construction in the last few years can be attributed to the economic recession; however, the University Neighborhood Overlay has also decreased development, especially in West Campus.

The University Neighborhood Overlay, a city initiative passed in 2004, consists of a plan that hopes to “consolidate some of the student housing that is presently scattered throughout the city.”

The overlay asks for larger buildings with denser development. The initiative hopes that developers of new residential projects will provide apartment rates below market value, housing more people for less.

The GrandMarc is one of the latest apartment complexes in construction in West Campus. The new building is located on West 26^th Street off Guadalupe and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012.

The apartment complex is the newest student living community coming to West Campus and is already leasing out apartments, despite still being under construction.

The complex provides studio, one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments that range from $895 to $960 per bed. Most of the apartments are fully furnished and come with a comprehensive list of amenities.

According to GrandMarc real estate agent April Reynolds, room sharing is allowed for the two-bedroom apartments, which would make rent $500 per person, a more manageable fee.

With older and newer buildings alike capitalizing on the latest market value prices, the cost of living in Austin will continue to increase much to the frustration of residents, especially students struggling to make ends meet.

Audioguide of Light

UT students and Austin community members experienced the coming together of light and sound as part of the Audioguide of Light Tour held Sunday afternoon on the University of Texas at Austin campus. The tour treated participants to the transformation of light into audible sound.

The Audioguide of Light Tour is part of the Center Space exhibition (Im)possibilities that is currently in residence at the Visual Arts Center. From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., creator Patrick Resing led three separate twenty-minute tours for groups of fifteen at maximum. The event was free and open to the public, yet required a reservation.

Resing gave each participant a special set of headphones that translated light waves into sound. Resing created and engineered the headphones himself. He led the participants in a straight line through the well-lit Visual Arts Center, into a dark auditorium and then outside into the bright sunshine to demonstrate how the sound changed with the degree of light.

“You get to create your own score with headphones as your musical instrument,” Patrick Resing said.

Resing, a New York City-based artist, describes his work as a coming together of technology and interaction. Resing is interested in each individual person having his or her own unique experience with his art.

The tour concluded with an open and relaxed question-and-answer session and much praise for Resing’s technologically sound exhibit.