University students gathered in Free Speech Alley Tuesday morning to take a break from their adult lives.
“Time Out!,” an event which the Union Program Council’s Ideas and Issues Committee sponsored, gave University students the chance to be a kid and relieve stress before they began studying for their final exams.
Brandon Smith, UPC’s Ideas and Issues Committee chair, said the committee wanted students to do things that are reminiscent of their childhoods before they get serious about their finals.
Smith and other members of the Ideas and Issues Committee set up a table covered with multi-colored slinkys, jumping ropes, bottles of bubbles, jacks, bouncy balls and other items.
Smith said childhood is about these things. UPC wanted to help students recapture these moments.
In addition, there were also scantrons and large blue books, which were gone within half an hour of the program’s beginning.
Jason Meier, the assistant director of Union Programs and staff adviser for the Ideas and Issues Committee, said “Time Out!” was meant to help students relieve stress.
“[It’s] a chance for anyone to come by and have some fun,” Meier said.
He said the Ideas and Issues Committee talked about cosponsoring the event with other groups on campus, but those groups were unable to fully commit.
Meier said “Time Out!” was held Tuesday because organizations cannot host any events after the beginning of the concentrated study period.
When the UPC committee set up its table in Free Speech Alley, members quickly saw students approaching the table.
David Pierce, a kineseology sophomore, played with several of the items on the table, including a yo-yo, a jump rope and a blue balloon, which he bounced off the palm of his hand.
He stopped his joyful play to call a friend about the available activities in Free Speech Alley.
“It looks like silly things, but I’m really enjoying myself,” Pierce said as he played with a neon orange “standard Duncan yo-yo.”
Pierce said he stumbled upon the table in Free Speech Alley.
“I saw bubbles from afar,” he said.
As Pierce played with the items on the table, a small group of students gathered around the table. Iris Davis, an Ideas and Issues Committee member, yelled as she walked around the table blowing bubbles.
“Have fun and be merry,” she said. “Because it’s almost time for finals.”
A few minutes later, she yelled that there were free juice boxes and lollipops.
“This is the most fun I’ve ever had working with the program,” Davis said.
Bethany Williams, a business law junior, approached the table and looked at the items before her. She picked up a bottle of bubbles.
“I’m forgetting, I’m like 20 years old,” she said to a friend.
Even Brian Johnson, LSU Tigers offensive lineman and communication studies sophomore, blew up a blue balloon with a string on the end.
Johnson said he likes balloons. His grandmother would blow them up for him.
Dunlap said “Time Out!” definitely was a success.
Students apparently were surprised that some of the items on the table actually disappeared, since they were not supposed to take them.
“I think people are accidentally taking stuff,” Dunlap said.
Dunlap told Pierce some students were actually walking away with some of the supplies.
“People hear ‘free’ and they just…” Meier said, trailing off.
Despite some items going missing, students and members of the Ideas and Issues Committee had a good time.
“It’s fun,” Meier said. “It’s just random, we need stuff like this more often.”