May 22, 2003

Contact: John J. "Jack" Bricke, philosophy department, (785) 864-2327.

Hello! KU junior's essay on privacy wins Philip W. Whitcomb memorial contest

LAWRENCE -- An essay on privacy issues in America by Sean Thomas Pauzauskie, Topeka junior at the University of Kansas, has won the Philip W. Whitcomb Memorial Essay contest at KU.

Pauzauskie, majoring in English and in cell biology, will receive the $500 cash prize in September, according to John J. "Jack" Bricke, KU professor of philosophy. The prize includes a book and the inscription of the winner's name on the Whitcomb plaque in Nunemaker Center at KU. The award ceremony will be in Nunemaker Center, with a member of the Whitcomb family attending, if possible.

Bricke described Pauzauskie's essay, "American Privacy," as "an original, provocative, well-crafted essay on the intersection of threats both of, and to, privacy."

Pauzauskie selected his topic largely as the result of a curious incident on campus. He was talking on his cell phone after leaving a class and passed a friend who also was talking on a cell phone. Neither took time to acknowledge the other because they were engaged in private conversations on a public street.

"I was taken aback that we didn't say anything to one another," Pauzauskie said. "I decided I had to write about this."

To prepare, Pauzauskie read "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of the American Community" by Robert D. Putnam. The author notes such things as an increase in the number of bowlers while the number of bowling leagues have plummeted in recent years, Pauzauskie said. "He looks at the decline of 'social capital,' the buzzword explaining the loss of connections in our society," Pauzauskie said of Putnam's book.

In crafting his essay, Pauzauskie also referred to the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which broadly enforces surveillance and investigative powers to protect against terrorism.

"I decided to take a historical, philosophical and pragmatic approach to examining freedom and privacy," Pauzauskie said. "In the end, I urge people that while we have freedom of privacy we also have freedom from privacy -- that this is a key time for re-engagement of public America."

Although he is considering a career in medicine, Pauzauskie said he also is interested in studying pharmaceuticals to explore how biology affects human cultures. He is the son of Bill and Sally Pauzauskie of Topeka and is a Hayden High School graduate.

This summer Pauzauskie has been selected to work as an intern with the National Institutes of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md. The NIH Summer Intern Program awards about 1,000 paid internships from a pool of more than 3,000 applicants throughout the United States.

The contest is in memory of Philip W. Whitcomb (1891-1986), who earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at age 89 at KU in 1981. A journalist by trade, Whitcomb received a bachelor's degree from Washburn University in 1910 and was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University from 1911 to 1914. His career as a European journalist spanned 64 years and 17 countries. As an Associated Press correspondent he covered both the first and second world wars. He also was a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, Baltimore Sun, New York Tribune and Boston Evening Transcript. Upon his retirement from the Christian Science Monitor in 1978, he entered KU's Graduate School.

Whitcomb's dissertation was titled "Essence and Existence in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas, Giles of Rome and Francisco Suarez." For part of his time at KU he he was graduate teaching assistant in Western civilization. He died in Paris in 1986 at age 94.

The Philip W. Whitcomb Memorial Essay Contest has taken place annually since 1988. It is open to any undergraduate at KU, and past winners have come from engineering, English, philosophy, architectural engineering, anthropology, mathematics and other subject areas. Submitted essays are limited to 3,000 words, and guidelines say they should address "the relationship of knowledge, thought and action in public affairs and public policy."