Photo courtesy of Jessica Sepetjian

On Friday nights, students, family and faculty gather in the University Student Union not to read, not to do homework and not to study.

They come together to play German mind games.

F.R.E.A.K.S., a campus program that stands for Finding Responsible and Entertaining Activities on KampuS aims to give students something fun and safe to do on Friday nights.

“We do not have a good campus life here,” Gregory Thatcher, chair of the Alcohol Safety Council and founder of the F.R.E.A.K.S. program, said. “Students will come to campus and socialize on campus if activities are available to them.”

Wanting to start small, Thatcher encouraged his classes to come and play German critical thinking games with him Friday nights.

Thatcher said that Germans are far more family-oriented than Americans. Some of the games played by F.R.E.A.K.S. club members are Amun-Re, Brass and Citadels.

“We send our kids off to play video games while they play games together as a family,” Thatcher said.

Thatcher, who holds a doctorate in behavioral change, takes German mind games to the next level by using them as a tool in the classroom.

“I actually teach critical thinking with the use of board games in the classroom and I use it as a teaching modality,” Thatcher said.

With the money provided by the public health department, Thatcher was able to purchase nearly 100 critical thinking board games.

“They’re a lot of fun, but they’re also educational,” Thatcher said. “Not only do they improve critical thinking, but they give students the opportunity to have alternate activities.”

German critical thinking board games focus more on strategic moves than on luck.

Public health major William Bonnifield said he often joins the F.R.E.A.K.S. club to play board games.

“I could have been out partying with friends, but I was at school having fun on a Friday night meeting new friends,” Bonnifield said.

Although the F.R.E.A.K.S. group is not an actual club on campus, they are trying to get more students to join them every Friday at 5 p.m. in the USU.

“We’re trying to generate a new campus culture,” Thatcher said. “Campus policies and procedures make it difficult for some groups on campus to organize and operate.”
Bonnifield believes that the F.R.E.A.K.S. club will help students because, “not only are you at school on a Friday night instead of out drinking, but you are actually learning by improving your critical thinking and problem solving skills, which a lot of people lack these days.”

The F.R.E.A.K.S. club program is looking for fun ways to encourage students to come to campus and socialize safely rather than drink alcohol and party.

According to www.collegedrinkingprevention.com each year, “1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries.”

Thatcher said that the reason that so many students would rather go out and drink than spend more time on campus is because “there’s nothing here for them to do.”

F.R.E.A.K.S. club members aim to change this.

Thatcher is in the process of meeting with various clubs around campus so that the F.R.E.A.K.S. club participants can team up with others to create even more fun opportunities for the community.

Along with partnering with other groups on campus, Thatcher is trying expand the Save Mart Center hours on Friday nights to F.R.E.A.K.S. club members so that they can create basketball leagues.

“I know that board games are not going to appeal to everybody,” Thatcher said. “It’s my philosophy that everybody would like it, but still, not everybody is going to want to do it.”

The board games that F.R.E.A.K.S. club members play are not solely for college students.

Mathieu Richaud, assistant professor for the department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, often attends the board game nights with his family.

“I suppose that too many people think that board games are for kids only because of the types of games that they played as youngsters,” Richaud said. “However, I quickly realized my mistake. There is something for everybody.”

Thatcher and the members of F.R.E.A.K.S. club want to improve the critical thinking of students while at the same time providing a safe environment where new relationships can flourish.

While the main purpose of the F.R.E.A.K.S. club is to give students a fun and safe place to go, it also aims to increase the critical thinking level of students.