When students have nowhere to turn
Crisis Center offers an open ear, advice
A solitary figure ambles
aimlessly across campus, im
pervious to the fog at 4 a m. A
nagging anxiety prevents the
student from sleeping or even
relaxing. Questions over
whelm the student’s mind...
confusion... doubts...
perhaps despair.
Right now, the student’s on
ly friend may be at the other
end of the Crisis Center’s
hotline — a phone number
available 24 hours a day, seven
days a week.
The student is probably in
the third phase of a crisis
situation, “a real intense anx
iety,” according to Candy
Reynolds, the director of the
campus Crisis Center.
Students face crisis situa
tions every day and they usual
ly can apply normal problem
solving mechanics to alleviate
a crisis, says Reynolds, who
has been the director since
January 1980. For example, a
student might talk to a friend
about a particular problem.
If normal problem solving
mechanisms don’t work,
students must turn to other
solutions they are familiar
with, but don’t use often, she
says. Often those techniques
include knowing that one’s
parents or family will offer
help if friends can’t.
Sitting in the sparsely fur
nished closet-like office she
shares, Reynolds’ energy
sparkles from her eyes behind
large round glasses and from
her never-still hands that em
phasize each point.
Students who call on the
Crisis Center, which is staffed
with 18 to 20 trained
volunteers, have either ex
hausted these two avenues or,
more likely, don’t have them
available, Reynolds says.
“Most people call us when
they’ve tried everything they
possibly can,” according to
Reynolds, who earned a
masters degree in counseling
from the University in June
1 982. She received a
bachelor's degree in
psychology and social welfare
from the University of Califor
nia, Berkeley, in 1979.
Situations that create crises
vary from person to person
and even according to each
person’s three “balancing fac
tors”, Reynolds says.
"Tripping on a sidewalk can
be a real crisis for one person
and for another person it
might be losing a spouse,”
she says.
How a student handles a
stressful situation depends on
the presence of the three
balancing factors; a social
support network, adequate
coping mechanisms and ade
quate perception, Reynolds
says.
A social support network is
friends, family, people to talk
to, someone who can loan
money or just “someone to
hang out with you if you’re go
ing through a bad time,”
Reynolds says.
Adequate coping
mechanisms are problem solv
ing abilities. Students with
some common sense and the
knowledge to tell themselves
they are going to get over their
current crisis, can usually
cope with the problem, accor
ding to Reynolds.
Adequate perception is be
ing able to keep things in
perspective and saying “this
isn’t the worst thing that's
ever going to happen to me
and I can deal with it,” she
says.
People coming to the
University for the first time
often lose some or all of these
balancing factors, Reynolds
says.
“People that move here
from high school have lost a
lot of their social support net
work.
“And their perception might
be changed. They’re getting
new ideas from the University
and all of a sudden what used
to be a firm conviction might
be gone," Reynolds says.
When students call the
Crisis Center, they usually
want to make a change and are
probably at a turning point,
she says.
“It’s very interesting that in
Greek and Chinese a crisis
means both a danger and op
portunity, and that’s very true.
When a person is in a crisis,
they can either learn about
themselves and gain new
resources and skills and
become better for that, or it
can be a real danger and peo
ple can develop neurotic ten
dancies,” Reynolds says.
Constantly dealing with
people who are at crossroads
sounds in itself a stressful and
nerve-wracking job. Not so,
Reynolds says.
“When a person is at a
crisis, they are really eager to
make change because if they
are feeling so anxious and
they are feeling such distress,
they want to move off that
point,” Reynolds says.
She leans forward, smiling
broadly. One hand fidgets with
her necklace, the other circles
the air above her head, as if en
compassing the whole
building
“It’s a real nice place to be
as a counselor," she says of
the Crisis Center, as she sits
back with her arms folded,
takes a deep breath and pun
cuates the statement with an
emphatic nod of her head.
Story by Jim Moore
Photo by Mark Pynes
The Crisis Center otters distraught and lonely students a
“friend" to whom they can pour out their problems and gain
sound advice.
El Salvador
Continued from Page 6
/
ticipation for any kind of op
position movement has been
tantamount to suicide in El
Salvador The strategy of the
current election proposal is to
encourage divisions within the
Democratic Revolutionary
Front, buy time for the govern
ment’s counter-insurgency,
and pose the United States as
a catalyst for democratic
change.
For those concerned and
confused about the recent
escalation of American in
volvement in Central America,
"Face of Revolution” is an
engrossing study of El
Salvador that puts the every
day news into a wider
historical context. It also at
tempts — and succeeds — to
provide a psychological por
trait of the Salvadorean peo
ple. Towards that understan
ding, it is interspersed with
Salvadorean poetry, verse
predictably replete with death
imagery that is alternately
satirical or fatalistic.
How authoratative and com
plete is "The Face of Revolu
tion"? Written in 1982, it
predicted Pres. Ronald
Reagan would send American
warships to blockade gun run
ning from Cuba to Nicaragua
The journal, “Nationa
Catholic Reporter," writes thal
of books on El Salvador, it is
“by far the best to date."
Of course, for those who are
hungry for more, we probably
won't have to wait long for a
deluge of books on Central
America. If the Vietnam ex
perience provides any scholar
ly blueprint, there will be
more.
Rennie’s Landing
Come to the Deck and Enjoy our Daily Lunch Special
^ Open Weekdays at
7:30 a m. with our
1214 Kincaid
687-0600
The Hut Tavern
On Dexter Lake
Babbling Brook ^ Shaded Deck
s Horseshoe Pit
Sunday — Live Music On The Deck
Starting at 4:00
The Hut Tavern
'A mile west of Lowell Bridge on Hwy. 58
MATH INSTRUCTION MADE EASIER!
MEETING THE CHALLENGE
FOR EXCELLENCE IN MATHEMATICS
<Q
A workshop designed for teachers with and
without a math background. August 15 to 26.
Earn 1 to 6 credits. Contact the University of
Oregon Continuation Center, 686-4231.
University of Oregon Continuation Center