Healthy Campus Summit, winter 2019
The fourth annual Healthy Campus Summit held Wednesday, Nov. 6, was attended by over 300 students, faculty and staff. Each year, campus hosts the summit as a means of sharing the accomplishments of the Healthy Campus Initiative (HCI) and to highlight topics of importance related to our mission. This year’s summit theme, “Mental Well-being: Don’t let this piece puzzle you,” focused on increasing mental health literacy and offering insights on factors that can influence and support mental well-being. Research demonstrates a strong link between well-being and student success, both in academic achievement and development of flourishing, productive personal lives. Achieving a campus culture of well-being requires a multi-dimensional, integrated approach where all aspects of the educational community are committed to and contributing to change.
Thea Woodruff, lecturer and senior field trainer/analyst for the University of Texas at Austin’s Well-Being in Learning Environments Project, gave the summit’s keynote address, speaking to a full room of administrators, faculty and students on eight researched conditions for well-being in the classroom. She spoke of strategies faculty can employ in academic settings that have the potential to decrease student stress and anxiety, improve learning and build resilience. Her lecture and subsequent workshop generated a buzz among the attendees and will help set the stage for Binghamton to do more planned work in this arena.
Other sessions at the summit helped faculty/staff learn to identify students struggling mentally using a continuum from distressed to being dangerous, and detailed how to make appropriate referrals on campus. The summit also covered wellness topics like the power of positivity, fighting mental health stigma, emotional well-being and the relationship between food and mental health. There was a panel discussion on spirituality and well-being with members of the newly formed Binghamton University Interfaith Council, an organization on campus dedicated to serving the spiritual needs of the campus community and strengthening its faith communities.
The HCI is working diligently to make Binghamton University the premier public University for innovation in campus and community health and well-being. The mental health crises faced by college campuses nationally necessitates upstream solutions incorporating creative and collaborative transformations in how we approach living, learning and working on campus. We will need to consider the multiple factors that contribute to someone’s mental well-being such as growth mindset, connectedness, stress management and self-compassion. Cultivating a culture and environment that supports individuals and groups in pursuit of their optimal potential requires fortitude and commitment. Binghamton University has started the hard work of self-reflection, evaluation and the creation of supporting policies and programs.
For more information on the HCI, visit bhealthy.binghamton.edu.