In the roof-top lounge of High Rise South Thursday, four women drew their naked bodies on a sheet of blank paper in an attempt to learn about how they perceive their bodies. The workshop -- organized by the Zeta Phi Beta sorority in conjunction with their Finer Womanhood Week -- fell during the annual Body Image Awareness Week sponsored by the Guidance For Understanding Image, Dieting and Eating Peer Health Education Group. The evening's discussion tackled issues ranging from society's obsession with thinness to its skewed idea of healthy eating. College senior Ariella Levy, co-director of the workshop, said the evening was unusual because the women voluntarily chose to participate in the body image forum. She explained that although similar forums are conducted year-round, people rarely attend body image workshops voluntarily, adding that sororities often set up mandatory workshops for their pledges. "We need a week of [body awareness forums] because we don't think about the damages society does to them on a regular basis," Levy said. "We were fortunate to have a week with nice weather when people are beginning to get more concerned about their bodies." GUIDE was started in 1991 by a transfer student who noticed a preoccupation among University students with body image and dieting issues. The group is based around three main premises -- that diets are ineffective and damaging to one's physical and mental health, that people should listen to their bodies and that people should accept all body types. "Body image shouldn't be equated with self-worth," Levy said. "It's not a judgement on your soul." College junior Mona Parekh --Ewho was involved in promoting Body Image Awareness Week on campus -- said the week provided students with an opportunity to "unlearn" their concept what it means to be healthy. "Industry has defined what healthy is," Parekh said. "If we just listened to our bodies, we wouldn't have as many psychological problems surrounding eating." She said the week was especially important for University students, many of whom have grown up with an upper-middle class mentality equating thinness with success. "The week is designed to promote discussion on campus," she said. "We need to go beyond the cultural reductionist point of view to understand that our mind and body are one." But GUIDE Co-President Rachel Dommers, a College junior, expressed concern about the low turnout at Body Image Awareness Week events in recent years. "I wish that more people would get involved and realize the seriousness of it," she said. "We've tried so many different ways of contacting people such as word of mouth and through sorority listservs, and still the turnout is low." No students outside of the organizations which promoted the event participated in last week' s workshop. Dommers added that GUIDE does not focus on eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, but instead encourages people to be comfortable with themselves and their bodies. "A lot of people signed A Day Without Body Hatred banner on the walk last week," Dommers said. "At least that's a step in the right direction --though there are a million more places to go."