2. WELLBEING + STUDENT SERVICES: BE PROACTIVE AND ENGAGED 

The troubling, pre-pandemic upward trend in the number of students reporting stress-related illnesses and mental health conditions has been amplified by COVID-19. A recent survey of more than 18,000 students by the American College Health Association (ACHA) found more reported mental health conditions in Spring 2020 than Fall 2019. Students reporting depression increased from 35.7 percent to 40.9 percent. 60 percent of the students questioned in the same ACHA survey revealed that the pandemic has made it more difficult to access mental health care.[1]

For many, the pandemic is an isolating experience. Studies have shown that the risks of loneliness and isolation can be as detrimental to one’s health as smoking and obesity[2]. How might student services, which are traditionally characterized by the ease of “pop-in” access on campuses and face-to-face connections between administrators and students, be transferred effectively to virtual platforms, both during the pandemic and in the future?

Several key insights may inform a long-term response: 

Proactive Provision of Student Services
As colleges and universities explore ways to support student wellbeing during COVID-19, the need for proactive outreach is clear. Mental health intersects with many different student needs that may go undetected within the context of the pandemic, from tutoring to food and housing security.

As the people who interface with students the most, many faculty members have become the essential point people in encouraging, monitoring, and supporting student wellbeing. Proactive engagement by faculty, student life, campus health professionals, and other leaders is a current trend that may inform the provision of student services moving forward while helping students to feel less overwhelmed and isolated now.

What are the implications of this approach? Campus agents who are to deliver proactive student services may need professional development to deliver on this promise. While much of this outreach is being conducted virtually right now, in the future, student health and wellness centers, along with other campus facilities that support student services, may need to be expanded and/or updated.

A Holistic Approach Includes Faculty and Staff
If we expect faculty and staff to attend to the needs of students, colleges and universities must attend to the needs of their workforce as well. Faculty and staff may have unmet needs themselves, including mental and physical health issues and work/life balance concerns.

How does the campus create an environment that supports the wellbeing of all stakeholders? Holistic campus health and wellness cares for the whole person and for all members of the campus community. It requires a disciplined approach to institutional planning—one that is systemic, integrated, and aligned with institutional efforts across planning horizons, i.e., strategic, operational, continuity, contingency, or scenario planning.

Embed Wellness and Community in Planning and Design
How do we put wellness at the forefront of the campus experience? In addition to investing in campus wellness centers, there is opportunity to embed wellness and community into all aspects of campus life and placemaking.

“Campus environments planned and designed with ‘wellness’ and ‘community’ as central organizing concepts may be more prepared to accept students for in-person or hybrid learning,” says WRNS Studio partner, Lilian Asperin. “Known best practices, such as easy access to fresh air, connection to nature, dedicated tranquil areas, and strong indoor/outdoor flows, can translate into safe and healthy learning environments for in-person learning. Post-pandemic, these spaces will still serve as wellness amenities and social hubs for the campus community. Moving forward, during formative stages of projects such as programming and planning, use of predictive software will be integral to evaluating cost and operational effectiveness.”

Social connection can be fostered by establishing a network of differently scaled gathering spaces for students, faculty, and staff to be alone together or to gather safely in groups while maintaining personal control over one’s level of engagement with others. Well-considered one-way circulation, for example, helps to stagger movement, manage density and proximity, and reinforce a sense of health and safety. These physical distancing strategies can be executed by considering the campus as a network of mixed-use neighborhoods, with primacy given to the pedestrian and social experience.

An ethos of care at most colleges and universities addresses everything from evolving pedagogies to the digital divide. The pandemic has highlighted the need for an empathetic mindset, with many institutions shifting the focus from content and skills to wellbeing.

Equity Is Tied to Holistic Wellbeing
The impact of students’ lives outside of school—their financial realities, familial contexts, employment responsibilities, and other stressors—on their academic performance and wellbeing have never been more apparent. Likewise, the shift to virtual learning has highlighted the digital divide and the reality of inequitable access to education and technology.

How are colleges and universities responding to this challenge? Particularly within the context of the digital divide, colleges and universities may need to focus on proactive outreach and strategies that meet students where they are. How might colleges, universities, and private industry, or the purveyors of communications and learning apps, make education more accessible? Can smartphones and other devices help bridge this divide?

Create a Sense of Welcome and Connection
The pandemic has compelled leaders within higher education to ask important questions about how to create or refine memorable experiences at key moments along the student life journey. How do we create a sense of welcome and connection when campuses are closed or only partially open? What are the bookends that shape one’s sense of belonging, community, and connection in an academic institution?

One approach has been to prioritize the experiences of incoming and outgoing students, focusing on ways to orient first-year students to their new communities while fostering a sense of closure, pride, and accomplishment that puts a cap on the college experience at graduation. For instance, a rigorous and well-planned welcome experience might include hybrid in-person/virtual introductions to students’ residential cohorts, peer groups, and mentors.

An ethos of care at most colleges and universities addresses everything from evolving pedagogies to the digital divide. The pandemic has highlighted the need for an empathetic mindset, with many institutions shifting the focus from content and skills to wellbeing.

How do we combat isolation and create a sense of community that is safe and welcoming, both now and in the future?

[1] “The Impact of Covid-19 on College Student Well-Being” (The Healthy Minds Network & American College Health Association, 2020), https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Healthy_Minds_NCHA_COVID_Survey_Report_FINAL.pdf.

[2] Julianne Holt-Lunstad and Timothy B. Smith, “Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-Analytic Review,” PLOS Medicine, July 27, 2010, https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316