Thwing Study Over (TSO) is the well-loved campus tradition with plenty of free food and giveaways, and contrary to the name, it involves no studying. Rather, it is the perfect destress event during finals, allowing students an excuse to leave their rooms and stop studying for a few hours. 

Tiger Fan, a third-year biomedical engineering major, has been involved in the planning committee since the fall of his second year. This year, he holds the position of TSO co-chair. 

“TSO really caught my eye because as a freshman during finals, I was like super stressed, and I know everyone was super stressed. One of my friends was currently in TSO, and I was like, OK, I’ll check it out.”

And from that moment on, he has been involved with TSO.

Fan helps oversee four main committees for the event: public relations and marketing, food, entertainment and student organizations. The TSO planning committees had weekly meetings to ensure that everything was ready for the big day. 

“I think this year we’ve been killing it, honestly.” Fan said. “Committees are doing so good, always ahead of schedule.”

Luckily, one reason the planning committees have been able to get ahead of schedule is that they have an extra week to plan TSO. While TSO usually occurs the Sunday before exams, this year, it’s the Sunday of the second week of finals. And students have some mixed feelings about it. 

Madi Weldon is a second-year nursing major. While she was looking forward to going to TSO for the first time this semester, she won’t be able to because of an 8 a.m. final the next day.  

“I wish it took place before the first week of finals, because Dec. 9 is a reading day, so people definitely won’t have exams that day.”

Having TSO during the second week of finals, and both reading days the week before, it causes students like Weldon to choose between studying and attending the event. And at a school like CWRU, most students will choose to prioritize their studies. 

Another student who will be missing out on TSO this year is Okiemute Eyemaro, a second-year international studies and anthropology major. Eyemaro herself will already be home at that time, and said, “I’m disappointed with it being the second week of finals because a lot of people will already be home and it is a tradition that a lot of us look forward to, especially the massages.” 

Other students, those that will still be on campus for the second week of finals, aren’t as put off by the date change, especially because it could mean shorter lines for food and fewer people trying to get the giveaways. 

However, switching the date of TSO was not a conscious decision by the committee, but rather one made from necessity. 

“We were trying to reserve it for this Sunday but Math Gala … was occupying Thwing this Sunday. We, unfortunately, were unable to find a compromise with them so we pushed it back to next Sunday,” explained Fan. 

The committee has added several new features to TSO this year in an effort to keep attendance near its usual numbers. One is encouraging student organizations that have booths to put on activities during the event. That way, when their giveaways run out, they will still be able to engage students who might come for the second half of the event. 

Another way is through providing the opportunity for students to take home any leftover food at the end of the event.

“The last 30 or 45 minutes, people can bring in Tupperware and we’ll be giving out Tupperware and they can box up any leftover food, take it home and enjoy it later,” Fan said.

Despite mixed student feelings about the date of TSO, it is still primed to be well attended and enjoyed by those who are still on campus. And there is no need to worry that this date change will become a permanent fact of TSO—the committee is looking to move the date back to the first week of finals for future semesters. 

Fan said, “From now on, like all previous years, we will have Thwing reserved for the first week.”