Welcome College Grad! The Real World Eagerly Awaits You.

I have two sons; one is a Phi Beta Kappa grad from The University of Arizona and the second, a Magna Cum Laude grad from Arizona State University.  They went to college, they lived away from home and they did what they needed to do to both graduate within four years.. quite a feat these days.  They managed their time well because they needed to.  They partied, but they also knew when to put it aside and get the sleep they needed.
I have my post-graduate degree in Business.  We've all taken our share of exams and final exams.

Only years later, I have learned that I should have been much more stressed than I was at final exam time because in today's university environment, at least at Tufts University in Massachusetts, there are perks for being stressed.
Tufts University is throwing stressed-out students a bone: therapy dogs to play with during their final exams.

When I was a student, final exams meant long hours in the college library, so the university kept the library open 24 hours a day during exam week.  The university also offered extra tutoring and counseling during exams week.  And, if I remember correctly, coffee may have been available round the clock in the dorms. That was all we got and that was all we expected.

I know exam time is a tough time for students, but I get the feeling we are turning our children's prep time for the future into something that doesn't come close to replicating what they will see in the real world, and in that process we are turning our college grads into wimps.
Tufts offers students "stress relievers" which not only includes the therapy dog visits, but free midnight massages, and the opportunity to play some laser tag.  By the way, who pays for this?
Unfortunately, after graduation and when things are tough in the office, the boss is not going to authorize any massage time... at least not in any office I've ever worked in.

During my capacity as an Assistant VP for a major bank, I remember someone asking for assistance with a gym membership to help "relieve their stress on the job." I never turned down any request directly, but was severely chastised when I mentioned it my boss.  He told me, "stress is a part of the job.. tell them to deal with it, or tell them to find a job with less stress."  That may not have been the greatest response, but it came from someone who had written several books on organizational development and turned the bank into one of the most profitable in the world.

"Every college student has stress around finals," said a resident director who came up with the idea of dog visits after participating in a similar program as an undergraduate at New York University. "And taking a break out from that with something as easy and simple and loving as petting dogs is really helpful."
NYU!?  They are doing this at NYU!?  Oh yeah, that's the same NYU that gave the an open forum to Mahmoud Ahmajinedad on campus last year.  I wonder if they had puppies for him to pet?  Another bad idea from one of our major institutions of higher learning.

Schools have been developing more flashy methods of reducing student stress over the past 10 years or so by sponsoring events ranging from late-night yoga and oxygen bars to some school leaders dressing up as the "pizza fairy" and delivering free food. O M G!!! The pizza fairy?  College students? 

Hold on a second... let me call my boss and she if she will dress up as the pizza fairy because I have a project (or two) due at the end of the week. I'm stressed, man.  I may blow any minute... where's that pizza and does it come with a Shih-Tzu?

"I hope these puppies make me happy," 19-year-old Tufts freshman Chloe Wong said Tuesday, petting an Australian shepherd brought in by her resident director. I hope they are still talking about dogs here, or somewhere in Australia a shepherd has a great story to tell his fellow shepherds.
I guess I expected just a little more from a university with "Tuff" in its name.