Dear Campus Community,
During the fall semester of 2019, Ithaca College launched a bold endeavor to rethink the way wellness initiatives were being prioritized, supported and integrated across our campus. This effort, rooted in several of the goals and initiatives outlined in the Ithaca Forever Strategic Plan, was originally spearheaded by a 13-member Wellness Action Team workgroup tasked with laying the groundwork and vision for this venture.
Through months of collaboration, rigorous self-analysis of existing wellness programs, marketplace analysis, and extensive research into wellness models that meet the vast needs of our IC community, the Wellness Action Team developed the framework for a reimagined integrated wellness model to center the needs of both students and employees of the college alike. In addition to articulating a new vision and mission, the Wellness Action Team outlined a set of guiding principles for this critical work and shared a list of recommendations, leading with the creation of a Wellness Leadership Council to steer this process.
The formation of the Wellness Leadership Council is the first phase of this strategic process. The WLC is the leadership vehicle for sharing input, providing collaborative support, and fostering inter-departmental and inter-divisional communication as we proceed with the work of reorganizing Ithaca College’s wellness model and campus-wide initiatives. Serving as the initial co-chairs for the WLC are:
- Michelle Goode, Program Director for the Center of Health Promotion
- Elizabeth Mendez, Human Resources Director, Benefits Administration
- Dan DeCaria, Assoc. Director, Student Experience Marketing and Communication (SACL)
Representation from across the college is absolutely vital to successfully realize the ambitious vision and mission of this process. The WLC co-chairs have now entered a recruitment process and seek interested students, faculty, and staff with a passion for championing the wellness of our IC community to join the WLC in this crucial work. The WLC has identified three separate work groups that will organize our process as we move forward and have benchmarked some initial goals.
Communication Workgroup Goals
- Development of a centralized Health and Wellness website
- Establish a content calendar and develop distribution strategy for health and wellness resource highlights
- Develop recruitment communications to participate on the WLC for the next academic year
- Develop a communication plan to keep the campus community informed of WLC updates and progress
Curricula Workgroup Goals (Integrating Health & Wellness into Academic Curriculum)
- Create canned classroom presentations and/or assignments
- Create a platform for faculty to easily access and utilize these assets
- Build connections with faculty to share this new resource
Wellness Wheel Workgroup (Identification of Health & Wellbeing Resources)
- Self-study of already available health and wellness resources
- Identify gaps in services and/or resources and make recommendations to adopt new wellness services and tools
- Promote a mental health phone application that would be helpful for students, staff and faculty
- Develop and adopt a calendar that highlights the various dimensions of wellness and features these dimensions by monthly focus
Interested individuals looking to participate as active members of the WLC can expect a time commitment of 3-5 hours per week. This time commitment may include regular workgroup meetings and/or active time spent working on various goals and initiatives.
The WLC co-chairs would like to complete this recruitment during the remainder of the Fall 2021 semester with the intention to host an official organizational kickoff meeting for WLC members during the month of January. If you are interested in joining the WLC and making a bold impact on the well-being of our IC community, please complete the Wellness Leadership Council Interest Form to let us know more about you and your interest in supporting this exciting work.
Sincerely,
The Wellness Leadership Council Co-Chairs