How can students live a balanced and healthy life despite the academic pressures at Cornell?

"Move! ... get some exercise" is the advice given by Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) psychologist Karen Williams. "Go to bed; studying at 3 a.m.? What is that?"

Time management, a healthy diet, exercise and a regular sleep schedule are some of the most effective tools available to students, agreed a panel of four experts speaking Feb. 8 in Willard Straight Hall about the resources available on campus to help combat mental illness. "It's part of all human relationships to support people when they're suffering," said CAPS counselor Matt Boone.

The event was co-sponsored by the student organization Cornell Minds Matter, the African, Latino, Asian, Native American Programming Board and the Asian and Asian American Forum. The event was moderated by Antoinette King '08, an Africana studies major and a member of Cornell Minds Matter.

Stereotypes formed an important part of the discussion. "When students are combating stereotypes, they might form a community or join an existing community," said Williams. "Students want to go somewhere where they have things in common with other people, leaving stereotypes outside the room."

Boone agreed, urging students to "set up communities among friends and colleagues where there is open discussion about race, gender and sexual orientation. We should be able to talk out loud; when somebody feels pain, there needs to be open dialogue."

Often, panelists noted, stereotypes prove to be specific to gender, race or sexual orientation. "CAPS has counselors of different ethnicities," said Andrew Lee '08, president of Asian-Pacific Americans for Action and the only undergraduate member of the panel.

Lonette Belizaire, CAPS psychologist and the fourth member of the panel, encouraged audience members to take advantage of Gannett Health Services' Let's Talk program offering free and confidential walk-in hours available at 10 sites across campus.

For more information on CAPS and Let's Talk, visit http://www.gannett.cornell.edu/CAPS.

Elan Greenberg '08 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.