October brings many changes on college campuses. Leaves change and wool sweaters appear. For students, homework can pile up, roommates irritate, and midterm reports scream trouble.

Stress Busters Week (Oct. 4-8) is a program sponsored by the Carruth Center for Counseling and Psychological Services at West Virginia University to help students deal with the stress that can kick in around midsemester.

All activities will take place in the Mountainlair student union.

First, there is the Grab&Go Stress Busters Café from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily in the Vandalia Lounge. Students will be able to pick up handouts on more than 25 topics, ranging from what is stress to how to cope mentally and physically, and meet withStress Busterswho can answer questions about stress management and offer referrals if needed.

The Busters are Carruth Center psychologists, counselors and graduate student volunteers from the clinical, counseling and sports psychology departments. Their available times will be posted at the Café.

Another activity is the Stress Busters Experience from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Greenbrier Room at the top of the grand staircase above the Food Court. The Carruth Center will provide assessments, information and exercises to help students learn more about stress management.

New programs will be offered daily and include topics like healthy cooking on a budget presented by Betty Forbes, a professor in the WVU Division of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Finally, there is the Stress Busters Break Room in the Commons Area. The Break Room is a place for students to relax with games and puzzles from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. throughout the week. There will even be aLaugh Wallwhere people can read and post comics and jokes.

Besides these activities, there will also be daily competitions staged from noon to 2 p.m. These will include a bubblegum-blowing contest and Origami Superfrog Jumping Contest. The contests will be different each day with stress management prize packages given to the winners.

Stress Busters Week is open to the public with the exception of the contests, which are limited to currently enrolled WVU students with their Mountaineer ID Cards.

For more information, call 304-293-4431 or stop by the Carruth Center on the third floor of the Student Services Center from 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on weekdays.