Today's Update: Thursday, August 17, 2023
August 17, 2023
Dear Student Life team,
The University’s Board of Trustees is wrapping up a week of meetings today, and I want to update you on our Student Life presentation to the members.
I’ll start by acknowledging and welcoming Ohio State’s new Undergraduate Student Trustee, Josh Kerner, who joined the board with this week’s meetings. Josh is a student in the Max M. Fisher College of Business, where he is majoring in Business Administration, with a focus on finance and economics. Josh has a lot of involvement experience in the residence halls, so he has a special knowledge of our Student Life operations. I am confident he will be a great addition and will do well representing the interests of Ohio State students.
The Student Life and Academic Affairs committee of the board met yesterday afternoon. I talked to the members about how important student well-being is to our efforts at setting students up for success.
We know that our students cannot be successful, either in the classroom or in their pursuits outside of the classroom, unless they are doing well, so in Student Life we also keep a firm focus on students’ well-being and provide students with every opportunity to invest in their well-being so they can thrive. I provided the board members with some data points to support this view.
Our approach is rooted in the Ten Dimensions of Wellness, recognizing that wellness is interconnected, and when our students face challenges, like mental health concerns, alcohol or other drug misuse or even loneliness, it is common that there are multiple contributing factors, and the solutions also require a multi-pronged approach.
I highlighted for the board members the ongoing work in a couple areas, the CARE team and the Student Advocacy Center.
The CARE team is a cross-campus approach that uses a multi-modal approach to recognize the complex, intertwined challenges students may be facing to best meet their needs. Their work for this academic year includes an overdose prevention video and educational guide for parents and families, increased use of our tools such as ScreenU and AlcoholEDU as well as distributing over 1,500 naloxone kits and 400 fentanyl test strips across the Columbus campus.
The CARE team also created an acute response plan to respond to local, regional, national and global critical incidents that impact our campus community and created presentations on student care and support as well as First Amendment and freedom of expression to further educate the campus community on these areas.
I described the Student Advocacy Center as small but mighty, and unsung heroes at Ohio State. Last academic year, they supported over 4,000 students with various concerns.
One critical way they help our students is through the distribution of Student Emergency Fund grants, which helps with things like unexpected medical bills, lost wages to cover rent or food costs if a student is laid off from their job or replacing a computer that is necessary for academic work if theirs is stolen.
Last year, they supported over 300 students with Student Emergency Fund grants, and among past grant recipients, 100% said they would go to the Student Advocacy Center again for help if needed.
I also talked to the Board about the effectiveness of peer-to-peer wellness coaching. But better than me to explain it, I was joined by fourth-year student Menaz Bettes, a Wellness Coach who helps run the program in the Student Wellness Center. She told the board how her fellow students benefit from this approach.
We are committed to creating a culture of care at Ohio State, and I am Scarlet and Grateful to the Board of Trustees for the opportunity to showcase some of our work.
Melissa S. Shivers, PhD
Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University