Reducing stress on a college campus

A variety of forces, internal and external, often impact students who are experiencing life on a college campus; these forces can lead to feelings of increased pressure and stress. To combat the negative effects of stress, faculty and administrators at a mid-size, suburban university collaborated to help students decrease their stress and assist them in attaining and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A Stress Reduction Room (SRR) was designed, implemented, and evaluated with the goal of decreasing stress in this student population. The function of the SRR, benefits, and implications identified from the stress reduction campus initiative, are described in this paper.