During the past several months, those around MSU’s campus may have heard the term “Healthy Campus Initiative” thrown around.
The project’s goal is to make MSU one of the healthiest places to work, learn and live. HCI was launched by MSU Provost June Youatt, who then assigned Gregory Holzman, associate chair of preventive medicine at MSU, to head the project.
But to understand what the Healthy Campus Initiative is, it cannot be thought of as a single isolated initiative, Holzman said.
Rather, it is the process of reaching out to different groups and people on campus to find out what’s needed to improve and then integrating resources and aligning people who can help make those improvements.
“When you look at the Healthy Campus Initiative, we’re looking at everybody,” Holzman said. “We have programs that will probably be focusing more with students, programs that might be focusing more with faculty and staff, with their families and some that will involve the whole community.”
Much of the groundwork has already begun, as Holzman has been in contact with many groups and organizations at MSU such as Health4U, the College of Nursing and the Epidemiology Office to collaborate on a collection of individual projects that all build toward the overall improvement of health on campus.
“It brings a renewed focus to what needs to be done,” said Health Promotion Services Integration Coordinator Nancy Allen, who has been heavily involved in HCI’s start-up phase. “There is always work do be done in health. The focus coming out of the provost’s office increases the opportunity to emphasize health on campus.”
In addition to working with already established health groups and programs at MSU, the HCI is also in the process of gathering information from other groups such as ASMSU, Council of Graduate Students, and the Faculty Senate. This is all part of an effort to find out what is needed and wanted to make the university as healthy of a place as it can.
But just because of an increased focus surrounding the HCI, that doesn’t mean MSU isn’t already a healthy campus to begin with, Director of Health Education at Student Health Centers Dennis Martell said.
The HCI is an all-encompassing set of initiatives that includes both previously existing programs and projects currently in the works — which include MSU Moves, tobacco-free campus initiatives, bike safety issues and more.
Still, there are some areas Martell feels are important to place more focus on.
“Some of the most important things we can focus on have to do with helping our students deal with stress, tension, anxiety and depression,” Martell wrote in an email. “We need to do things to help our students build the capacity to manage these mental health concerns. Most of the top 10 health impediment to academic success have to do with mental health.”
Different parties working together is huge key to the HCI, which attempts to embody the core principles of the project. These include an emphasis on collaboration and coordination, the strengthening of lines of communication and fostering community and a sense of belonging.
“We want to transform the culture of health and wellness at Michigan State,” Holzman said. “I really want people to start thinking about health in everything that they do, so when we start making policies and we start doing things, we start to think about what kind of health impact will this have.”
