The end of the semester is rapidly approaching. Students and faculty are bracing for the onslaught of finals, papers,  assignments and anxiety that comes with the close of every semester. Mounting deadlines and anticipation often push students to their limits, leaving them to various strategies for maintaining grades and sanity, which at times seem like mutually exclusive endeavors.

Many resources on and off campus are available to Weber students to help us through the next two weeks. Student fees and keen service providers are at the flanks of the beleaguered student armies, providing aid to those who seek it. Many students are unaware of these resources and tools, which leads them to greater despair. This is unnecessary, and should be avoided at all costs.

The Student Services Building is filled with offices and staff that work to fulfill its name. The Student Success Center offers planning, counseling and connections to other sources. Meeting with these counselors is a vital step in planning success and maintaining academic survival, if not prestige. Counseling shouldn’t be limited to this office, and fortunately it’s not. Department and college advisers are invaluable assets to planning and recuperating students’ academic livelihood, and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Within this building lies the Tutoring Center. It would be redundant to say that tutoring helps students succeed. All students have a course they struggle with; this does not mean they are stupid, unique or lazy, but simply that they are enrolled in college. Tutoring centers offer the balm to the wounded student, repairing grades and confidence along the way.

With all of these academic resources, it can become easy to overlook the mental strain that comes with serious study. Students who feel overwhelmed, anxious or that they may be coming to a breaking point can seek help in the Counseling and Psychological Services Center. Each student is entitled to six free sessions a semester with a counselor. These sessions are confidential and offer constructive processing of anxiety,  doubt and depression, all things that students have felt at the close of each semester.

The Stress Relief Center is also an invaluable student resource at this time. Students can go in to unwind with massage chairs, Chi Machines, inversion tables and iPods loaded with soothing music.

Many students underestimate the need for recreation during work. A brain is only as productive as it is happy, and the bowling alley and billiards hall offer a laid-back way to blow off stress and meet with others. This is not as competitive as basketball, so it offers a casual setting for competition, and often refreshes the mind enough for it to tackle the next assignment.

In addition to these resources, students find the greatest support from friends and family. No office can replace the lift found from the empathy and fervent aid from those who know best. Finding extra time for socializing is imperative to keeping heads above water in the rising tide of anxiety.

Regardless of the strategy, charging the surge of responsibility and due dates with courage, planning and tenacity is certainly the most constructive thing to be done. The worst thing a student can do is nothing at all. The anxiety builds, the work piles up, and slowly they are consumed by their to-do lists.

Students of Weber State — rise up and conquer the end of the semester. We have faith in you.