Saint Mary’s College held a three-hour evening event for students intended to relieve the stress of finals week.  Advertised as “Break a Plate and blow off some finals steam,” the Dec. 9 activity had students arriving at Ferroggiaro Quad in droves. 

    Assistant Director of Residential Experience Fiona Corner came up with the idea about two years ago, and Smash-a-Plate has been a finals fixture each semester since.  “We expect about 250 students. It’s a good study break.”  (Corner was unaware of the pun she just made.) 

     “They use a Sharpie to write whatever they want on a plate,” Corner explained.  “Sometimes they write names, sometimes certain classes that stress them out.  Some have even written down the names of their professors.” The prospective plate-smashers did not take the assignment lightly.  Many of them sat huddled around tables in deep concentration making the most of identifying what gave them the greatest stress du jour in the hopes that relief was just a broken plate away.

     Each student got one plate to throw. If it didn’t break, they were allowed to keep throwing it until it did.  In the name of safety, protective full-facial visors were required to be worn in case shards of a broken plate flew in unexpected directions.

     “We have incentives for students, such as hot cocoa, if they fill out a survey after their experience,” said Housing Operations Manager Carolina Celis.  “This gives us any suggestions or comments about the event. We found out that this ranks in the top three of student activities.”

     Even with temperatures in the 40s, once the plates were broken, many students lingered in the quad to chat with friends before heading back to the dorms and their studies – hopefully with a lighter emotional load.