The Student Recreation Center opened its doors to all members of the UA community on Thursday during this month’s Stress Buster Day, which featured free massages, cancer screenings and other health services.

The UA Department of Campus Recreation began sponsoring Stress Buster Days this year as a way to “”offer something to the entire community … to help people take care of themselves in these stressful times,”” said Juliette Moore, director of Campus Recreation.

Moore cites the UA Transformation Plan, increasing mortgage concerns and economic fluctuation as causes of additional stress this year.

The next Stress Buster Day will be Dec. 4 from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. During this time, any member of the UA community, including faculty and administrators who do not have memberships, can use the Student Recreation Center facilities and even bring a guest who is 18 years or older, Moore said.

For the next Stress Buster Day, local vendors are hosting special events between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at no charge.

This “”lets vendors market their services for free … (and) gives students a chance to receive services that are designed to give them a break from their school schedule,”” said Laura Beller, marketing senior and marketing assistant at Campus Recreation.

“”A lot of people were surprised that everything was free,”” Beller said. “”Students really enjoyed a lot of cool services that you normally pay for, given for free,”” she said.

One of the vendors featured biofeedback to help people focus on calming down their brain activity, Beller said.

People put on electrodes that allow them to observe their brain waves on a screen, said Jody Liller, marketing and

communications coordinator at Campus Recreation. “”They can use their brainwaves to move rocks from one side of the screen to the other. … It’s awesome,”” she said.

The cancer screenings are popular because “”a lot of girls get stressed out about their skin,”” but are also very important because “”surprisingly there are a high number of college students with skin damage,”” Liller said.

Other services include health food samples, chiropractic diagnostics, life and work connections and rolfing.

“”Rolfing is a more chiropractic way to do massage. … A lot of the faculty really liked it,”” Beller said.

Both the turnout and feedback at the event were great, “”but we would like to have even more people involved,”” Moore said.

Campus Recreation plans to continue to have a Stress Buster Day once a month as “”a way of providing support to the U of A community,”” Moore said.