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Like many universities, Michigan Technological University is tight on resources. Even with a strong commitment to improving student health and wellness, budget restraints can pose a challenge.
âHere in Michigan, weâre in a remote area, so we donât have a lot of health resources specifically for our students,â says Whitney Boroski, manager of Student Health and Wellness at the university. âThe community resources we have for our general population are already overloaded and we donât have an affiliated student health center.â
Recognizing the importance of awareness and prevention when it comes to keeping students safe in the face of issues like depression, substance abuse, and sexual assault, university administrators at Michigan Tech made the choice to begin working with CampusWell (then Student Health 101) in 2013.
âWe werenât hitting our student health mandates, and we realized that it would check off some of our compliancesâmaking sure that our alcohol and drug policy is shared with all students, for instance,â says Boroski. âAnother issue is that our students arenât sleeping, so thatâs not a compliance topic, but itâs an important one.â
Michigan Tech students are offered CampusWell content in several mediums. At the library, student volunteers hand out printed flyers as a way of engaging with their peers one-on-one.
âWe had winter carnival coming up and thatâs a heavy drinking time. Our binge drinking rates are high, and itâs very cold, so itâs high risk,â explains Boroski. âI printed out some of the pre-made content from the [CampusWell] resources on alcohol. They were perfect!â
In addition to printable materials, televisions around campus display sleek, pre-made slideshows promoting health messaging, and the CampusWell app makes crucial health and wellness resources available to students whenever they need themâwhether on- or off-campus.
Many schools remain uncertain about whether they will return to campus in the fall or even the spring, which has made CampusWellâs customizable online platform more essential than ever for engaging students remotely.
When it comes to student health content, a major success factor is not just about when and how itâs shared, but the content itself.
âWe have these administrators sitting around a table trying to figure out what to do about, say, binge drinking, but we havenât been in that position in forever. Iâm not a student anymore. We donât know what they should be doing or what prevention looks like,â says Boroski. âCampusWell has these great articles with timely messages, written specifically for students with student commentary. Itâs invaluable.â
Boroski was âshockedâ to find that large numbers of students are clicking through to CampusWell content from e-newsletters, even though most students claim they generally donât check email. One popular topic? Cooking and nutrition.
âOur students donât know how to grocery shop, meal prep, or cook. They always want more information on quick, cheap, and portable snacks and meals,â she adds. âThe UCookbook series is exactly what we needed.â
As a team of one, Boroski simply doesnât have the time and resources to produce all the content she wants to be sharing with her students. With CampusWell, she can easily find the content needed to address real-life issues without delay.
âWe donât have a lot of time to be creative. Weâre busy doing. When thereâs a cold or flu going around in our residence houses, itâs easy for me to search the CampusWell archive for articles and information and send that out quickly.â
To help distribute CampusWell content, Boroski appointed a student from the universityâs Exercise Science and Kinesiology department.
Part of that role involves sharing blog posts on social media, which has shown impressive engagement. After all, for a tech university, the proof of CampusWellâs value is all in the numbers.
âWhen I can go to my supervisor and say âHey, we had 3,000 students see this post on hand washing, or on better sleep,â that is a real value that I can prove when the question of budget comes up,â says Boroski. âWe donât have a student health service, so we need something. I think if we didnât, it would hurt our recruitment. Iâm asked all the time: Whatâs our comprehensive care plan for our students? You better believe CampusWell is part of that.â
CampusWell is a versatile platform that helps make a multi-departmental wellness initiative simple, sustainable, and engaging. Using technology, high quality, research-based content, and proven marketing strategies, together with your existing assets, we deliver a campus-wide wellness platform that will positively impact your students and institution.
Start promoting wellness on your campus today
The team in the Office of Health Promotion at Villanova University has always been active in providing health and wellness resources to their students. Prior to signing up with CampusWell, the department had been using Stall Street Journal posters in bathroom stalls around campus as a health education tool. While students valued these posters, the department still had its challenges.
One obstacle was the financial burden of hiring someone to design the posters every month. Another challenge was that these postersâwhile valuableâwerenât enough. âOur students really were looking for more readily accessible information,â says Stacy, director of health promotion at Villanova University.
This is when a Villanova staff member learned about CampusWell at a conference and realized what a huge help their services could be. Stacyâs department approached CampusWell with two primary needs: they wanted health information for students on an engaging, convenient, and research-based online platform, and they needed assistance designing the monthly Stall Street Journal.
CampusWell was able to offer both the online content platform and a custom design feature at a cost-effective price point that fit the departmentâs needs and budget. Now, in addition to getting help designing their Stall Street Journal posters, the department is able to post them online as a custom page on the CampusWell site.
âOur students who live off-campus also get to read it every month, which is what they were asking for.â Stacy says.
The ability to customize articles within the platform has been a major benefit for Stacyâs department and other Villanova staff members. She notes that the Title IX coordinator appreciates that the articles focused on sexual violence can be linked back to her contact information, which allows students to easily connect with her when needed. They have also been able to add their own policy information to articles. âThat feature, particularly as it relates to sexual violence, has been really helpful,â she says.
As Villanova continues its partnership with CampusWell, Stacy is excited to see how the platform can help the university engage with students even more. âI believe that, moving forward, this is going to be a major outlet for us,â she says. She notes that her department plans to use the Client Portal to see what articles students are reading, as well as to advertise events and initiatives on campus through custom posts.
Her advice for other universities thinking of signing up with CampusWell? âMake full use of the resources available to you.â Schools that take advantage of all features included with the platform can more effectively serve their students in the same way Stacyâs department has.
âCampusWell helped us achieve a more dynamic, student-friendly, engaging way to connect with our students.â
CampusWell is a versatile platform that helps make a multi-departmental wellness initiative simple, sustainable, and engaging. Using technology, high quality, research-based content, and proven marketing strategies, together with your existing assets, we deliver a campus-wide wellness platform that will positively impact your students and institution.
Start promoting wellness on your campus today
