By Michael Dabney, Communications Specialist, Student Educational Advancement

MIND, BODY, SPIRIT: NEW WELLNESS CENTER TO ADDRESS NEEDS OF THE 'WHOLE' STUDENT AT UCSD

Student Affairs is implementing sweeping changes to the way it provides services that address the physical, mental and spiritual needs of its undergraduates. In a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to student wellness, such services will now be consolidated under one departmental cluster, and within the next few years, under one roof on campus.

Known as the Student Affairs Wellness Initiative, the changes are occurring in two stages. The first is the consolidation of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Campus Recreation, Student Health Services, and potentially the Center for Ethics and Spirituality, bringing them together collaboratively under one Assistant Vice Chancellor, allowing students to more effectively receive wellness services that address their psychological, emotional, physical and spiritual needs.

The second stage involves moving these services under one roof in a “one stop” location known as the Wellness Center, an inviting 50,000–60,00 square-foot, four-story facility estimated to be constructed by 2011–12 just to the north of the Main Gymnasium, and very close to the recently expanded Student Center. The Wellness Center, with its staff of health, recreational and medical professionals and trained student peer counselors, will provide a wide range of services—from yoga, meditation, dance and aerobics to medical services, psychological counseling and ethical/spiritual inquiry and development.

While the Wellness Center facility is being planned, student wellness services are being consolidated under the purview of the newly-created Assistant Vice Chancellor for Wellness position (for which Student Affairs is currently conducting a national search to fill). Eventually, the new AVC will be housed in the new Wellness Center.

And just as UCSD is known for its interdisciplinary approach to science discovery and medicine—in which different areas of these fields work together toward a common goal—the Wellness Center Initiative calls for professionals in Recreation, Student Health Services, CAPS, the Center for Ethics and Spirituality to collaborate across disciplines to enhance the wellness of all students. These collaborations will also need to extend outward to include residential life staff in the Colleges and others directly involved in helping students flourish in the UCSD environment.

“Our intent with this initiative is to better meet the needs of the ‘whole’ student at UCSD,” says Ed Spriggs, Associate Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs, who is coordinating the planning and implementation of the initiative with Vice Chancellor Penny Rue.

“Through the initiative, we wish to engage more students each year in wellness behaviors that will enhance their ability to deal effectively with the stresses and demands of a highly competitive university like UCSD, and eventually enable every student to graduate with knowledge they can use to maintain their physical, emotional and spiritual wellness on a life-long basis,” says Spriggs.

Reina Juarez, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), agrees: “The initiative’s collaborative team approach to wellness stands to help reduce the stigma and misconceptions among students about seeking psychological help, and through our multi- and trans-disciplinary approach with other units, we hope to impact the cognitive, emotional and psychosocial well being of students in ways not available before.”

Plans will also soon begin with Student Affairs Development to raise the estimated $40 million in private donations to build the Wellness Center. “We look forward to also involving students in this effort, as well as in the planning and the carrying out of wellness programs,” says Spriggs, “in addition to other activities that spark undergraduate interest in this exciting project.”

Jerry Phelps, Counselor in CAPS, will be responsible for measuring how effective the initiative is over time in meeting its goals of impacting student wellness. Measurement strategies will include those already used earlier this year in a wellness pilot study conducted at Marshall College over two consecutive quarters.

In addition to the recreational services that will be available at the new Wellness Center, RIMAC is also taking steps to provide other related services at its facility as part of the Wellness Initiative, says Dave Koch, Director of Recreation. “This includes a Wellness Studio on the second floor of RIMAC, where last year, a wide range of strength training and cardio equipment was installed and space opened for classroom instruction, meetings, stretching and other activities,” he says.

RIMAC’s racquetball/squash seating area is also being converted to accommodate thirty new cardio machines, including stationary bikes, treadmills and ellipticals—all of which will be open by fall quarter to students, staff and faculty.

Spriggs, who believes UCSD’s one-stop, holistic approach to student wellness may be unique among major universities, “From what we can gather through our research, many well-known universities provide wellness websites for students, but none have pulled together wellness services in one central building and done it collaboratively with other disciplines of wellness.”