Support Groups help students deal with college
Dr. Ed Beck:Coordinator
of Counseling Services
and Assistant Professor
of Psychology at Penn
State-Harrisburg
SUPPORT GROUPS: THEY'RE
HERE, THEY HELP, THEY'RE
FREE
Let's face it...coming to
college isn't the easiest task
you've ever undertaken.
Many of us bring a lot of
emotional and psychological
baggage related to
experiences that have been
hard on us and make us feel
alone, isolated, ashamed,
guilty, insecure and
worthless. When these
feelings emerge, especially
in response to the very real
stresses of academic life, we
tend to feel like somehow or
another we may be "going
crazy" or "losing it!" Our
lives appear out of control
ELMER N. LEAR
Professor emeritus, Penn
State University.
THE CELEBRATED British
statesman Edmund Burke
gifted orator, Sage
conservative, an friend of the
American colonists
introduced the
expression,"fte dissidence of
dissent." The present writer
finds it most fitting to apply
this term in analyzing the
current, upheaval in Central
Europe. Those leading the
struggle to shake free from
the Communist grip obviously
are one with the camp of
dissent. They refect the
outworn slogans of orthodox
Marxism, do battle with
determination and valor to
overthrow the oppressive
tyrants, and insist on nothing
short of freedom. We in the
United States have been their
inspiration and we rejoice in
their successes. Our
readiness to assist them in
their drive toward liberation
takes the form not only of
words but of pledges to
provide financial support in
their Herculean task of
reconstruction.
Why then dissidence? The
disagreement arises from an
all to pat assumption that the
battle for democracy carries
with it an uncritical
endorsement of capitalism.
While it is true that free
enterprise and the market do
and we become easily
distracted and upset with
unpleasant thoughts and
memories causing a wine
variety of feelings that don't
feel right. It feels like
"something's wrong."
Well, there is "something
wrong" and the good news is
that support groups can play
an important role in helping
students overcome the
feelings of powerlessness,
isolation, guilt, hurt and
anger. Realizing that we all
need support with our
feelings at one time or
another, the Student
Assistance Center's
"Directions 90: The Spring
Collection" offers seven
support groups for students
who may be in need. All of
these groups are free and
confidentiality is maintained.
Democracy
Endorsement for Capitalism.
not guarantee it and
sometimes work against it.
Let us not forget that on the
eve of World War I, both the
Kaiser's Germany and the
Tsar's Russia - despite
vestiges of feudalism- were
essentially capitalistic. So,
also, have been South Africa
and the dictatorial regimes of
Panama, Paraguay, and some
other Latin America
countries. It is the automatic
linkage of the political and
economic spheres that
demands closer examination
At the very outset, we must
recognize that the actuality
of pure free enterprise is a
rarity, if not unadulterated
myth. When the United States
undertakes to bail out either
the Chrysler Corp. or
subsidize agriculture - all at
taxpayers exppense- we
encouter a radical departure
from capitalist doctrine.
These chartible and tender
hearted actions may very
well serve the general
welfare, but they are also
clearly in the service of
special interest. Whenever
the public cushions private
risk-taking, it converts
venture capitalism into
collective security.
What about government
regulation of commerce,
finance, and industry? Do
patriotic Americans wish to
stand by idly, while
unskyworthy military
OP-ED
This Spring's line-up of on
(or nearby) campus support
groups include: Gay and
Lesbian Issues, Survivors of
Sexual Abuse, Mothers
Without Custody,
Separating/Divorcing
Students, Adult Children of
Alcoholics, Alcoholics
Anonymous (AA) and
Narcotics Anonymous (NA).
For all but the NA and AA
groups you need only call
948-6025 to get information
on , when and where the
groups are meeting.
Information on AA groups
can be secured by calling
234-5390 or 652-4400.
Information on the Narcotics
Anonymous group may be
secured by calling 233-3733
or 652-4400.
There are many support
groups in the community.
Frequently, there are
is not always
aircraft and unbattleworthy
tanks constitue our first lines
of defense? To denounce
regulation as "socialistic"
may be the tactics of
scroundrels, obsessed only
with amassing unlimited
gains. These are the
malefactors of great wealth,
evading paying their tax
obligations by devising
ingenious tax shelters.
How shall we regard the
inside trading on Wall Street,
the scandalous manipulations
on the Chicago Commodities
Market, the string of hostile
corporate take-overs that
enhance national
productivity not a whit? Free
enterprise - or the voracious
piranha devouring the
trusting public? What of our
national resources, God's gift
to America? In the idolatry
of capitalism, do we passively
tolerate pollution of our air,
water, and land - be it from
dumping industrial
contaminants, spilling oil on
our beaches, deforesting our
precious timber lands?
Indeed, in our shining
country , we witness the
spectatle of the homeless, the
medically uninsured turned
away from hospitals, youth of
the lower middle class unable
to afford higher education.
Dare we mention the
bureaucratic corruption of
an unsupervised Housing and
Urban Development, dare we
January 24, 1990, CAPITAL TIMES
multiple meetings at multiple
sites to accommodate very
busy schedules and needs. A
current list of support groups
in the greater Harrisburg
area is posted periodically on
the Counseling Services
Bulletin Board outside the
Student Assistance Center,
Olmsted W-117. You may also
call CONTACT at 652-4400 to
find out where there may be
a support group to meet your
particular needs. Central
Pennsylvania is blessed with
many agencies and conseling
services offering a
comprehensive variety of
support groups. Professional
Counselors in the SAC, the
Blue Pages in the phone book
and Contact, are just a few
places you can find a helpful
support group. Good Luck.
allure to the daunting
nightmare of drugs or the
purgatory of our over
crowded priisons? Can we
tolerate the vanity and
smugness of confusing big
business hype with honest
enterprise?
While proud of our
achievements, let us assist
those dissidents who prefer
"socialism with a human
face" while deploring the
hard line Stalinism of the
Romanian model. Let us
learn from the welfare
experiences of those nations
who revere democracy but
exhbit a social compassion.
Genuine competition is
admirable, but so is
cooperative enterprise. Do
not forget that the free trade
union movement of Poland
marched in the vanguard of
those consumed by an
unquenchable thirst for
democracy. If the students of
China and Burma - along with
those of East Germany and
Yugoslavia - favor a mixed
economy and social security,
let us cheer them on. The
American federal system
encourages expermination.
Why not a free world, united
in fellowship if not in
ideology? Down with the
Berlin Wall of close-minded
slogans and un-American
arrogance!