The night before the first Econ 1 midterm last year, I almost wished I had spent the last several hours shut up in one of those hidden libraries in the quad frantically stuffing the wisdom of Professors Stein/Spiegel into my over-caffeinated brain. The blissful release of tension that is the econ scream almost made me want to toughen up my mushy humanity-major brain. Almost.

As spring econ 1 students gear up for a weekend of studying in preparation for their midterm on Tuesday, they may feel sorry for themselves because they don’t have the econ scream. I know I did last year. However, dear Spiegelites, you are not alone, don’t fret. Utah State University recently banned their version of the econ scream, the finals week howl. Librarians in the Utah State library have the tradition despite the endorsement of the student government. How rude!

Here’s my recommendation: I say that we stand with our brethren at Utah State and as a token of our devotion establish a second semester econ scream in Van Pelt. Afterall, why should the second semester students get shafted? Their marginal stress at point exam is congruent to the stress function of first semester econ students. Also, after taking the pulse around campus, in my very inexpert opinion, a major stress reliever is in order even for non-Econ 1 students.

And here’s some more good news, melting the ice in the library isn’t unheard of in the Ivy League. Watch the success of Columbia University’s Prangstgrup in relieving stress in the library:

I don’t know about you, but I’m convinced — librarians, beware! Who’s with me?