CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, February 2, 1996
3A
Accentuate the positive
Positive thinking builds self-confidence level, helps recognize limits
Low self esteem can be common among college students and characterized by alcohol and drug abuse, depression, and poor academic work.
Photo Illustration by Darcy Coles/KANSAN
By Teresa Veazey Kansan staff writer
Call it stinkin't thinkin'
You look into the mirror with a critical eye, only to find something negative instead of something positive. And that can damage your confidence, said Janine Gracy, coordinator of Health Promotion and Education at Watkins Memorial Health Center.
As part of National Boost Your Self-Esteem Month, KU students should take a closer look at how they feel about themselves and what they can do to feel better, Gracy said.
"Self-esteem has everything to do with your health behavior," she said. "If you feel good about yourself, then you are less likely to take risks with your body."
These risks can include alcohol abuse or engaging in unsafe sex, both of which are common to college students.
As a result, accidents are the leading cause of death in the college age group, and complications from AIDS are the leading cause of death for people 25- to 44-years-old. Gracy said.
Recognizing what you can and can't do and respecting those limitations are crucial for good self-esteem, said Joyce Davidson, counseling psychologist and director of training at Counseling and Psychological Services.
"Self-esteem has everything to do with your health behavior."
"It's a balanced mix of positives, skills, abilities and limitations," she said. "I will get tired, but there are many things I can do."
Janine Gracy Health Promotion and Education
Davidson likened self-esteem to a battery in a car from which energy is drawn.
"If the battery is never charged, nothing else works," she said.
But an uncharged battery one day doesn't always mean a person is suffering from low self-esteem. Davidson said everyone feels a little down sometimes, but one bad day after another can mean that a constant feeling of inadequacy has become a habit.
"We get the analogy that if it's short-term, it may be discouragement," she said. "If the thoughts about your self are chronically critical and self-blaming, that's probably more of a self-esteem issue."
Gracy said people with low self esteem had a negative sense of themselves. These
■ isolating themselves — not doing things
characteristics include:
they enjoy or used to enjoy
abusing alcohol or drugs
depression
poor academic work
complaining
Justin Hertach, Hutchinson sophomore, said he noticed how his self-esteem began to dip and affect his academics. He sometimes asked himself why he missed a class or if he really studied for a test.
"My self-esteem is pretty average," he said. "Since being in college, it makes me feel it's a little lower. Seems like everything you do is always less than what you expected."
Not meeting expectations can hurt a person's self-worth, but being too critical can hurt it more. Gracy said.
"It's time for self-approval," she said. "It's time for being able to look in the mirror and like what you see."
Buddhism opens minds at KU
Hyaweel Choi has found a place to practice Buddhism in the very heart of America, thousands of miles from where Buddhism began.
"I was surprised when I came to Lawrence that there was a Zen Center here because it's such a small town," said the visiting professor from Seoul, South Korea.
By R. Adam Ward Kansan staff writer
Choi didn't attend regularly the elaborate temples in Seoul, South Korea, but attends all four of the practices at the Kansas Zen Center, 1423 New York St. she said.
The center isn't well-known, but it has a history in Lawrence.
The center was founded in 1978 and has been operating since then.
It was started by a Zen monk from Korea, and is one of the International Kwan Um Zen Schools, Choi said.
The school started out as a meeting in a KU library with about 20 members.
Next, it moved to the community center. The center has about 40 permanent members, and its own building.
A gravel path leads through an Oriental-style gate. There are rock
sculptures in the yard and an alter with a gold Buddha on it in the building's foyer, said Stanley Lombardo, guiding teacher of the center.
Lombardo, who also is chair of the Classics department, said many members are from the University community.
Chad Snoddy, Charleston, Ill., junior, attends the center regularly.
"It's really nice to have something here in Kansas," he said.
Practices at the Center consist of three parts.
The first part is prostration. Students, dressed in traditional Taoist robes, bow 108 times.
The second part consists of chanting for 20 minutes.
Finally, there is meditation. The students sit on the floor and meditate about their essential nature, Lombardo said.
The practice also may include reading letters written to the Zen teacher about the struggles in people's lives.
As for what motivated Choi to become more involved in Zen Buddhism, she said, "It helped me in really understanding life, managing life, interacting with others and most of all, understanding myself."
Sherry Velasco, director at the Kansas Zen Center, chants in Sino-Korean during a Zen Buddhist ceremony.
Rrian Hott /KANRAN
Pulitzer winner gets local award
By David Teska Kansan staff writer
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hedrick Smith will be recognized today for both his reporting on the events of the day and his efforts at focusing on the future.
Smith, who has written several books on the politics of the United States and the for-
will receive the William Allen White Foundation's 1996 national citation. The award is given annually by the foundation to distinguished journalists.
Hedrick Smith
Mike Kautsch, dean of journalism and director of the foundation, said the foundation's trustees
voted for the recipient each year. After the ballots are returned from more than 100 trustees around the country, a committee recommends five selectees. The foundation's executive committee then approves the list.
Susanne Shaw, professor of journalism and a foundation trustee, said that it was not uncommon for people to remain on the ballot for several years.
Kautsch said he called the five winners to see who could attend the event.
Because of scheduling requirements, Kautsch said, the calls are made eight months in advance.
Smith will join a long line of noted journalists who have received the award, which has been given every year since 1950.
The first award went to former New York Times editor James P. Reston, who died in
December. Previous winners include Walter Cronkite, Robert McNeil, Helen Thomas and Charles Kurait. Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman was last year's winner.
"These are all people who have had distinguished careers in print and broadcast journalism." Shaw said.
Smith has shown many attributes also found in the foundation's namesake, William Allen White, Kautsch said. White, the longtime managing editor of the Emporia Gazette, died in 1944.
"He shares with William Allen White an interest on the workings of government and has been praised for his analytical skills." Kautsch said.
Smith, like White, is also a visionary, Kautsch said.
In 1985, Smith made the move to television with his documentary on the Reaganera "Star Wars" program. Since then, he has produced 20 documentaries, including 1988's The Power Game: How Washington Works, and 1991's Inside Gorbachev's USSR, which won a George Peabody Award.
Before going into documentary work, Smith spent more than 20 years as a print reporter, starting with the Greenville (N.C.) News. In 1959, he went to United Press International and, ultimately, the New York Times in 1962. He covered the civil rights conflict in the South and then became the Times' Moscow correspondent.
For his reporting on Moscow and Eastern Europe, Smith won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize. He became the Times' Washington bureau chief in 1979, a position he held until 1985.
The ceremony and Smith's address is open to public and will be at 1:30 at the Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
Shimomura highlights artistic career at lecture
Kansan Correspondent
By Eric Weslander
A silent fisherman stood at the front of the darkened auditorium. Images of harbors and fishing docks flashed on the walls, and the sound of crashing waves filled the room as the audience filed in.
Roger Shimomura, university distinguished professor of art, gave his inaugural lecture last night at the Spencer Museum of Art auditorium.
The lecture, titled A Decade of Performances: Not Made in Japan, used slides, video, and live performance to chronicle Shimomura's performance art pieces.
The ocean images represented the beginning of Shimomura's career as a performance artist, which began with the filming of fishing trips in Seattle 12 years ago.
Last night's lecture was the 47th in a series to recognize distinguished professors upon their appointments.
Shimomura was appointed to the professorship in 1994.
Shimomura's performance art primarily featured Japanese images. One past performance combined traditional Japanese dance with rock music.
"All ethnic traditions of a country mutate as they are passed from one generation to the next," he said.
Much of Shimomura's work addressed stereotypes of Asian Americans.
One performance he discussed, titled Yellow Potluck, featured a woman in Japanese dress dancing and handing fortune cookies to passers-by on 42nd Street in New York City. The fortunes read, "Fortune cookies are not Japanese."
"It's dangerous to generalize," Shimmura said.
To show the meaning of performance art to the crowd of more than 300, Shimomura used performance in the lecture.
A black-robed attendant, known in Japanese theater as a kurogo, occasionally ran through the crowd passing out mementos of the lecture. In his previous performances, Shimomura used a kurogo to interact with the audience.
At the end of the lecture Kelley Hunt, a singer who previously had worked with Shimomura, danced and sang through the audience with her face painted white, wearing traditional Japanese dress and curly blond hair.
a kurogo followed, handing audience members such material things as hamburger buns and bottles of ketchup.
The piece symbolized the limitations and expectations of biculturalism, Shimomura said.
Hunt said that working with Shimomura was energizing.
"He also gives you a chance to be bizarre."
Too Low to Quote (the record companies don't approve)
FEATURING
Quotable but Low Prices
Amps 12.97
Billy Goat 10.80
Hulklof Two 9.99
Eazy-E 11.88
Dan Williams 12.97
Presidents of the United States of America 12.97
Self 10.88
Reppianth 10.88
Southern Culture on the Sloth 9.98
Victoria Williams 9.88
Squirrel Nut Zippers 10.88
Rocket from the Crypt 10.88
G-Love and Special Sauce 10.88
Lee McBee 11.88
"Boys for Pele"
Alice in Chains, Candlebox. Edwyn Collins, Everclear, Green Day, Eric Matthews, Menswear Joan Osborne, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Urge Overkill, Victor Mike Watt, Enya, P.M. Dawn Frank Black Ainee Mann, Mary Me Jane, Geraldine Fibbers Beatles, Pretenders, Van Morrison, C.I.V.
24th & Iowa·PO Box 2·Lawrence. KS 66046
X