Framing well-being in a college campus setting

Area of Science:

• Higher Education Administration
• Public Health
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Universities increasingly recognize the importance of holistic well-being for students and employees.
• Existing well-being frameworks often lack standardization, leading to varied institutional approaches.
• There's a noted linguistic shift from 'wellness' to 'well-being' in higher education discourse.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the current landscape and variations in well-being initiatives across North American higher education institutions.
• To identify and highlight innovative practices in student and employee well-being programs.
• To generate hypotheses for future research on campus well-being strategies.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study involving 10 higher education institutions in the US and Canada.
• Data collection through key stakeholder interviews and focus groups.
• Analysis of qualitative data to identify trends in student-serving, employee-serving, and hybrid well-being programs.

Main Results:

• No universal definition of well-being is adopted across campuses; models for structuring and measuring initiatives are not dominant.
• A trend towards systemic, environmental, and policy-based approaches to well-being is observed, moving beyond traditional health education.
• Initiatives show significant variance in engagement based on institutional philosophy, with many addressing health disparities for marginalized populations.

Conclusions:

• Campus well-being initiatives are diverse and evolving, with a notable shift towards comprehensive, systemic strategies.
• Further research is needed to establish standardized models and definitions for effective campus well-being programs.
• Institutions are increasingly focusing on equity by designing programs that address the needs of underrepresented student and employee groups.