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Thursday. October 4, 1990/ University Daily Kansan
Group gathers as friends
Devoted KU students are Best Buddies with mentally retarded
Bv Jamie Elliott
Kansan staff writer
For some students, getting involved means joining multitudes of organizations, paying the dues and then spending little or no time in
Students with that kind of activity in mind, however, were urged not to join Best Buddies at its organizational meeting last night.
best Buddies, an organization dedicated to developing friendships between college students and mentally retarded individuals, stressed commitment 1 in its meeting last night. About 30 people attended.
"If you're planning to go to Europe in the spring, don't start Best Buddies," said Kasey Smith, Best Buddies Midwest regional coordinator. "If you're planning to take 30 hours next semester and not have time to think, don't start Best Buddies. It's a yearlong commitment."
Maureen O'Malley, KU Best Bud dies president, said the program was not merely volunteer work.
"It's based on friendship." O'Ma<sup>1</sup>
ley said. "It's the process of an entire year commitment, building a friendship. It's just like any other friend you might meet in life into it, the more you get out of it."
Students interested in the Best Buddies program are required to fill out an application and go through an interview before being paired with a buddy.
O'Malley said that the program was started at Georgetown University in 1897 and that it had grown into a college with about 20 chapters across the nation.
Students are encouraged to take their buddies out at least twice a month and to participate in six group activities during the year. O'Malley
Kristip Schultz, Ames, Iowa, junior, said she got involved in the program last year in its first year on campus. Although she had worked with Special Olympics for five years, she still had Buddies program was different.
"It's more one-on-one because you're paired with one individual."
Schultz said, "I liked it better than Special Olympics in the sense that you really got a chance to know just one person."
Deb Engstrom, Lawrence High School special education teacher and liaison between KU students and their buddies, said the program's goals were to teach students friendship, in which participants learned equally from each other.
Schultz said she thought the program was helpful because it helped integrate retarded people into society by exposing them to non-disabled peers.
"By me more one-on-one with them, it helps more than the giant group-type thing," she said. "People see you out there and see they can do their own things. If you come out of it without a teammate, that is 90 percent of the mainstreaming effort. They can do the rest themselves."
"They have a lot to offer. You just have to open that door and give them the opportunity to prove themselves."
Kansas stations will air video that honors KU's anniversary
Kansan staff writer
A video commemorating KU's 125th anniversary will be shown throughout the year on Kansas television stations.
The 30-second video contains 89 photos and video images shown at a pace of two to six pictures a second.
Robin Eversole, University Relations director, said the video would be shown during halftime of the football and basketball broadcasts and also during the KU coaches' television shows.
It will be broadcast Sundays on
WIBW-TV (Channel 13) in Topeka,
KSNW-TV (Channel 12) in Wichita,
KZCK-TV (Channel 6) in Kansas
City, Mo., and Sunflower Cablevision
(Channel 6) in Lawrence.
Bob Lewis, University Relations video producer and co-producer of the anniversary video, said pictures from the 2017 book that describes the history of the
University of Kansas, photographs from University archives and recent photographs.
"The main focus of the video was to celebrate the history of KU," he said. Lewis said the background music, which consists of drums, was composed by Jim Stringer, a Lawrence musician.
Jeannot Seymour, University Relations art director, also helped produce the film.
"We were really excited about it," she said.
Seymour said the producers
Bob Lewis University Relations video producer and co-producer of the anniversary
'it's different than the average halftime spot for a university.'
wanted to achieve a certain warmth about the University with the video.
video
She said she chose pictures that depicted the sense of history and tradition at KU. Lewis picked out the pictures that would appeal to a person who had not been at the University for a long time.
Lewis said the video was just one of a variety of ways the University was celebrating its 125th anniversary.
"It's nice to look at KU with a new but old view," Seymour said.
"It's different than the average halftime spot for a university," he said.
Residence hall series to help students cope with problems
By Tracey Chalpin
Kansan staff writer
A series of programs called, "There's an Elephant in My Room," is designed to help students from dysfunctional families confront problems that have caused them. said Deb Miller, chairperson of the residence hall programming committee.
The programming theme, which will be featured during October in KU residence halls, is drawn from the book "Elephant in the Living Room: A Reader's Guide to Children of Alcoholics," by Marion Typope and Jeffrey S. Olsen, describes a family that stepeds and ignores an elephant in its living room, Miller said.
"The theme is: If there were an elephant in your living room, you couldn't ignore it," she said.
Milton Scott, assistant director of housing, said the elephant represented student and family problems, including substance abuse, child abuse and stress.
"The elephant is anything that can be causing barriers in your life," he said. "It is not just limited to alcohol."
Miller, who is also the Ellsworth Hall resident director, said programs at Ellsworth would teach residents how to massage for stress relief and would teach students the gamed称led "Trick or Drink" that would feature non-alcoholic beverages.
Charles Shirley, academic programming coordinator at Joseph R. Pearson Hall, said JRP would present a program at which recovering alcoholics would speak.
The program, called "Portrait of a KU Drinker," will feature recovering alcoholics and people who are in the kiddie club to kick the habit.
Some speakers will be students who live at JRP,he said.
Shirley said JRP also had invited KU police officers to talk to residents.
Bruce Blanc, from the Lawrence Massage Therapy Clinic,
demonstrates massage on Andrea Gentry, Topeka junior.
GLSOK supplies anonymous peer counseling to community
Rv Monica Mendoza
Kansan staff writer
or friends of gay or lesbian students
Trained to provide knowledge and a listening ear, a group of KU students provide peer counseling.
Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas provides peer counseling by telephone for people in the community with questions about gay and lesbian
Amy Myers, director of GLSOK, said peer counselors also would answer telephone calls from parents
"Even if a person found out his or her roommate was gay or lesbian and was having a hard time dealing with it, he said." The primary service of peer counseling is to act as a support group. We are not professionals."
The counseling is for people who have questions about their sexuality, health or legal rights, she said.
"When I first came to KU, I called a peer counselor," Myers said. "It really helped me.
Jarrod Brown, GLSOK member,
said GLSOK organized at least one
training session every semester.
"People who call us might ask about what there is to do in Lawrence." Myers said. "Sometimes they ask about safety, and they have questions about safe sex."
"All of the training sessions are different," Brown said. "One emphasized AIDS awareness, and another focused on situations that would get people to talk."
Karen Cook, GLSOK member, said
that during the past four years the sessions had become more organized.
"Before that it was informal," Cook said. "Formal training is a new thing."
BLOOK always has offered peer counseling, but it did not offer counselor training until three or four years ago.
During the training sessions, students learn how to communicate by participating in role-playing and problem-solving exercises, she said.
Myers said counseling was done on the telephone. A student first would call Headquarters, a Lawrence counseling center at 1419 Massachusetts to be put in touch with a counselor. The number for Headquarters is 8141-2345.
"It might not be a safe situation to meet the person," Myers said.
Cook said one of the most common problems was dealing with family. Once a person decides to tell his mother he must be a traumatize experience, she said.
"The dynamics of the family has been altered." Cook said.
She said she had an obligation to be a peer counselor.
"I am comfortable with my sexuality, and I have a deep commitment that we should take care of each other." Cook said.
Myers said she tried to be impartial and to let the caller answer his or her own questions.
"We try to ask open-ended questions and let them decide what is best for themselves," Myers said.
CINEMA IS BETTER! DONT SETTLE FOR VIDEO!
Everything in store on sale (except golf balls)
GRAND OPENING! October 5.6 and 7
Three-day Specials
Wilson 1200 Lt Men's golf clubs $325 (while supplies last)
All rubber footballs & basketballs 20% off!
Wilson Aggressor's
Women's golf clubs $250
(while supplies last)
Grand Prize Drawing
Sunday 4:30 p.m.
$100 Gift Certificate
In The Malls Shopping Center
23rd & Louisiana 749-5332
HOURS: Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sunday 12 noon - 5 p.m.
Daily Drawings for Hundreds of Dollars in Prizes! (Winners need not be present)
Friday
7:00 p.m. Mitre Delta
Triton Soccer Ball.
$29.99 value.
Saturday
5:00 p.m. Voit Golf
Bag. $74.99 value.
Sunday
4:00 p.m. Tachikara
Volleyball. $49.99 value