At OSU we are committed to student success and we know that there is no student success
without broad student well-being, including mental health. Everything we do in student
affairs is here to promote the well-being of students and we try to integrate it into
all components of the programming we provide for students outside the classroom.
Counseling and psychological services has a program devoted to student wellness. It
includes a number of different facets, in particular there’s an emphasis here on campus
on mindfulness.
I think as a student you go through a lot of stressors with balancing academic life and social
life. That's pretty difficult to maintain and have a adequate balance if we didn't have the
resources that we have here at OSU.
I myself, I'm a person of long-term sobriety, which that means for me that I haven't drank
or used a drug in over 5 years. Coming to Oregon State University I was worried about
that because of the college atmosphere and me being a non-traditonal student. I'm not an
anomaly, there's a lot of individuals on this campus that have stories a little more than
mine or a little less but the stigmatization, a lot of them are afraid of. I, myself have
learned that they're not people here to hurt you, they're people here to help you. And
the resources are plentiful and it's really helped with the wellbeing for myself.
Every once in a while we hear from our students and they tell us, they send us a letter, they
send us an email and they tell us, "what the work you did for me was transforming, it really
helped me recognize some of the patterns that I was having or some of the problems that I was
repeatedly having. It helped me find ways to deal with those and I'm in a much better
place because of the work you and I did together." So those are kind of wonderful opportunities
and remind us that the work that we do is actually making a difference.
Here at Oregon State University, we're very committed to health and wellness of all of
our community members, obviously here on campus but really around the nation and around the
world. What we're trying to do here at Oregon State is understand the relationship between
mental health, general well-being and the ability of our students to really flourish
in their studies and thrive later on in life.
We have classes that we offer, called Happiness classes, and these classes can help students
really create lives that are more meaningful and feel like they're being able to be more successful
as individuals in our community. So mental wellness is not just, "I'm depressed and I
need to not be depressed", but mental wellness is "how can I really have a meaningful and
purposeful life?"
If you think about the program for first-time freshmen that gives them a greater sense of
optimism and strengthens their resolve to persevere, to be successful in their own careers.
That's the basis upon which they'll build their lives and it's the strength in which
they'll be able to reach out to other people in their professional and personal lives to
help other people realize their potential. Health and wellness are pretty fundamental
to everybody's success and their ability to help others succeed.
As an alumni, we have a unique opportunity to shape the future and the mental wellbeing
of fellow students and diverse culture and opportunity for the community.
We know that there is no student success without well-being. So this is a major priority at
OSU and in student affairs to ensure that all of our students are reflecting on and
learning about what it means to be thriving and to have a high level of well-being at
OSU. I think it's really important to remember that well-being and mental health is not about
addressing a crisis when it arises, it's about ensuring that we're creating a campus climate
that's conducive to well-being at every turn. We understand that students are here to develop
the habits and the skills and the habits of mind that will carry them in a state of well-being
throughout their lives after college, into graduate school and into careers.