Krupski's work focuses on wellness
Director of Living Well Center offers students a holistic approach to life

By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor

As director of the Living Well Center, Laurie Krupski, says she has the best of both worlds—with work and play so deeply interwoven into her everyday life, it's often hard to distinguish between the two.

	The Neuromuscular Integrative Action class led by Laurie Krupski is one of several mind-body activities students attending Krupski's alcohol and drug awareness workshop must participate in.
	Photo: Nancy J. Parisi

That's not to say she doesn't work and play hard—attending graduate school and working at the center full time, as well as teaching evening classes in ballroom dancing and an expressive fitness-and-awareness class called Neuromuscular Integrative Action (NIA) designed to reduce stress and stimulate awareness of the mind-body connection.

She also spends many weekends practicing what she preaches—teaching students on campus the value of embracing a holistic lifestyle as an alternative to punishing their bodies with alcohol and drugs.

Students' emotional, academic and social needs are the Living Well Center's primary concern, she says. And the result is an increasing focus on incorporating holistic wellness and the importance of life-long learning into students' daily lives through a variety of programs.

Krupski and staff at the center have integrated what they define as the "eight dimensions of wellness," (social, occupational, spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, cultural and environmental) into a philosophy of wellness that strives to help students realize proactive goals of personal development that in turn lead to more positive lifestyle choices. Workshops on relationships, stress and time management, nutrition, fitness, smoking cessation and alcohol and drugs are a part of the peer-education activities hosted by the center.

The center's workshops and much of Krupski's teaching style engage creative learning strategies that appeal to all types of learners, from visual, tactile and kinesthetic learners to the student who prefers listening or lecture as a way to absorb information—with a primary goal of reducing stress and helping students bond with their peers, says Krupski.

Part of the education and outreach work undertaken in Krupski's "free time" involves helping students find a more balanced approach to socializing and getting to know their classmates without relying on alcohol and substance abuse—a rite of passage for many students before they even reach their freshman year at UB.

Even Krupski's dissertation proposal as a student in the Graduate School of Education is geared toward understanding and utilizing teaching strategies that will most effectively reach students who have violated the university's alcohol-and-drug policies—students who are mandated to attend a two-weekend workshop with Krupski called the Student Educational Program for Alcohol and Drugs (SEPAD). During that time, she teaches them to recognize the signs of alcohol poisoning and discusses other options to a lifestyle that for many revolves around weekend binge drinking and substance abuse.

"The passion for me is teaching and understanding what strategies are most effective in engaging students. This is a challenge—to reach students who are mandated, who don't want to be here and feel punished," she says.

Before students attend the last of the weekend sessions, they must participate in one of the center's mind-body activities, which includes classes in meditation, mind-body awareness, self-defense, ballroom dance and drumming.

"We're giving them creative avenues to participate in activities that don't involve alcohol and drugs, and that will help them really embody the understanding of respecting their bodies," says Krupski. "Drinking and partying are not just accepted, but promoted. It really is a challenge for them to say 'no.' There is so much pressure to be accepted and fit in."

Most of the 26 students in a recent weekend session chose meditation as their activity for the week, said Krupski. "They're interested in learning how they can achieve a similar altered state of mind where, if they need a release, they can do it on their own without turning to alcohol and drugs," she adds.

Unfortunately, she says, there are students who have become alcoholics by the age of 21. "Those students tend to come to me—they tend to recognize it themselves," she says. In fact, a couple of students who have recovered from drug and alcohol abuse now talk to students about their experiences, hoping to bring more awareness to the consequences of substance abuse. Krupski makes it clear that students don't have to be alcoholics to have a problem.

She says that when she asks students how many of them have hugged the toilet, missed class or felt hungover the next day after a night of drinking, all or most routinely raise their hands. When she asks those same students if they feel they have a problem with drinking, invariably, no one raises a hand. But, she adds, if a student admits to even one of the negative effects of drinking, the consequences clearly have outweighed the benefits. Krupski points to the case of Scott Krueger, an MIT student and Orchard Park resident who died in the fall of 1997 of alcohol poisoning after a night of binge drinking at a fraternity party.

"Scott Krueger was not an alcoholic. He was not a seasoned drinker. He was a student who went out to have fun and made some poor choices one night that cost him his life. That night, he had a problem with alcohol," she said.

The results of a survey given to incoming freshmen at UB last fall revealed that, by and large, students overestimate the amount of alcohol consumption engaged in by their peers, and consequently, try to live up to those misperceptions. The end results of excessive drinking, Krupski says, are lower grade-point averages, an increased likelihood of engaging in unprotected sex, driving while intoxicated and dropping out.

Krupski is trying to increase retention by emphasizing to students that "there is nothing wrong with your need to feel de-stressed and to have fun, but we're offering you healthy activities four evenings out of the week in which you can meet those needs without alcohol and drugs."