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NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2000
3A
MONDAY NOVEMBER 3,2008
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Members of the Art of Living Club, Abhijit Mehta, Pune, India, graduate student, Rush Griffith, Dallas senior, Meron Herouy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, sophomore, and Deepa Jrendran, Sri Lanka freshman, practice a type of yoga known as Sudarshan Kriya Wednesday night in the Hashinger Hall dance studio. In Sudarshan Kriya participants place their arms in specific positions to direct breathing to different parts of their bodies, helping them to achieve a relaxed state.
CONCERT
Club hopes to reduce stress
BY BETSY CUTCLIFF
bcutcliff@kansan.com
Living in a harmonious, stress-free environment is the purpose behind tonight's "One World, One Family" concert, put on by the University's Art of Living Club.
The concert, happening in the Ballroom of the Kansas Union, will feature international food and drink and music performed by University students.
Manas Bhatnager, vice president of the Art of Living Club, said the event was intended to spread awareness about cultural diversity and promote international peace.
Bhathnager said he hoped to reach out to the diverse student body on campus and provide an atmosphere of oneness and belonging. He also said that he hoped the concert would raise awareness about the benefits of the Art of Living Club, which is an organization that promotes breathing exercises as a means to a stress-free environment and peaceful existence. The practice is based around a certain type of yoga called the Sudarshan Kriya, which in Sanskrit means "healing breath." It incorporates specific natural rhythms of breath to release stress and bring the mind to the present moment.
"The difference between this and traditional yoga is that this is a workout for your mind," Bhatnager said, "I don't think modern yoga classes focus enough on the mind."
Sudarshan Kriya yoga is beneficial to the everyday college student, Bhatnager said. According to the American College Heath Association, stress is the number one reason behind poor academic performance.
Maron Heroui, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia sophomore, said the practice molded her into a better student because it helped her study when she couldn't focus.
"When you have so much in your head it's hard to see one problem and solve it," Heroui said. "This really helps to put things in perspective."
According to research conducted by Columbia College of Physicians
and Surgeons in New York City, yoga, and more specifically Sudarshan Kriya yoga, is proven to lower levels of anxiety and stress and help treat patients with posttraumatic stress and depression disorders. The study said Sudarshan Kriya yoga was a low-risk, low-cost method of enhancing well-being, mood, attention, mental focus and stress tolerance.
The practice emphasizes breathing and clearing the mind. At the University, students involved in the Art of Living Club participate in Body, Breath and Mind sessions, which focus on relaxing all three in order to clear the mind.
"I spend less time studying because I'm so focused after the sessions." Bhatnager said.
The concert's "One World, One Family" name came from the organization's 25th anniversary Global
Peace Conference, "One World Family"
Performances will include a variety of University student groups, including the KU Taiko Club on Japanese drums and graduate students Kent Queuer, Troy, Idaho, and Yara Gutkin, Lisbon, Portugal, performing classical Portuguese music.
Other performers include the Hong Kong and Macau Student Association and the Asian-American Student Union. The event will take place at 7 p.m. tonight in the Ballroom of the Kansas Union.
"I think that performing these types of music is a way to broaden people's minds," Queener said. "It really promotes what this concert is about."
Edited by Rachel Burchfield
H.W. Bush to speak at Lied
POLITICS
BY JESSE TRIMBLE
itrimble@kansan.com
jtrimble@kansan.com
Former President George H.W. Bush will accept the 2008 Dole Leadership Prize on Nov. 16 at the Lied Center this month.
"I's directly related to the mission of the Dole Institute," Lacy said. "We seek honored individuals who have proved a record of service to their country."
Lacy said the prize also included a commitment to politics and bringing change to the political system.
Bill Lacy, director at the Dole Institute of Politics, said the criteria for the Leadership Prize was simple.
Other receivers of the Leadership Prize include former New York City mayor and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, civil rights activist and U.S. congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) and former U.S. Senate majority leader Howard Baker (R-Tenn.).
"We want to guarantee a significant portion of the tickets to students." Lacy said. "It's an opportunity to see a world leader."
The event will have an interview-style format, with Lacy asking Bush questions about his presidential career.
Lacy said he tried to formulate questions based on what the
community would want to hear. He said the main problem was time constraints allowing only eight or nine questions.
"Generally speaking, that's the hardest thing for me," Lacy said. "What are the most important questions you can ask a former world
leader about his life and his career?"
Stephanie Jian, Lawrence f res h man and secretary of Young Democrats,said she thought the
event would be relevant to students.
Bush
'Any chance you get to see a former president speak is a great opportunity,' she said.
She said she hoped the former president would touch on current events, as well as his career and presidency.
Jesse Vaughn. Mound City senior and president of College Republicans, said he planned to attend the event.
Vaughn said the issues the former president could speak on would be important, including events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, that influenced his presidency.
Lacy said he thought Bush would be well-received because
of his extraordinary career, which included being shot down as an airforce pilot in World War II and actively helping former President Bill Clinton raise money for Hurricane Katrina and Asian tsunami victims. Lacy said the event should generate a lot of interest because Bush's postpresidential career had kept him in the public eye.
Bush served from 1989 to 1993 as the nation's 41st president. Other former presidents to visit the Dole Institute include Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Bush last spoke to KU students in 1976 at the School of Business when he was CIA director.
Free reserved tickets will be available today for students and the public. Students can pick up tickets with their KUIDs at the Student Union Activities box office in the Kansas Union, Murphy Hall or the Lied Center.
Five hundred tickets will be reserved for students, with 1500 for the public. The tickets not distributed to students by 6 p.m. on Nov.7 will be available for the public at 11 a.m.on Nov.10 at the Lied Center.
The event will begin at 3 p.m.
and end at 4 p.m. on Nov. 16.
Edited by Arthur Hur
ELECTION 2008
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Odds low of being deciding vote
In some states, the odds of being the vote that tips the election to your candidate are much better. In others they are astronomically worse.
WASHINGTON — Voting for president and having your ballot be the deciding one cast — statistically, that is like trying to hit the lottery. The odds for the average person are 60 million to 1 against it, a study shows.
The study by three prominent statisticians used millions of computer runs of polling data to examine the likelihood that a single vote will carry a state and that that particular state will tip the balance in the Electoral College. The statisticians were trying to answer the question: "What is the probability your vote will make a difference?"
The answer is very low. You are far more likely to be hit twice by lightning.
Either way, "it's still a chance, it's like buying a Powerball ticket," said study lead author Andrew Gelman, a professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University.
For some people, though, the odds approach fathomable numbers. Gelman lives in New York, where the odds are 1.9 billion to 1 that his vote will make the difference. "I always vote," he said. "I do think that it's a privilege that we have."
Student Senate