Well-being and Resilience
Well-being and resilience are not just priorities at the University of Utah; they are essential foundations for our community’s success. Our commitment to fostering a thriving, connected campus has never been stronger. We celebrate the excellence already underway on the Health Sciences side of our university, through the Osher Center for Integrative Health, and within Student Affairs’ Center for Campus Wellness.
Building on this expertise and experience, and at the direction of President Taylor Randall, senior leadership launched a OneU focus on Wellbeing and Resilience — a comprehensive initiative designed to support all faculty and staff across the university.
Now entering its next phase, this ongoing effort continues to grow through new projects, programs, and partnerships. The purpose of this effort is to promote a thriving campus culture characterized by care and well-being as foundations for academic success.
Promoting Well-being: We cultivate well-being, resilience, and thriving through clinical care, research, community engagement, and collaboration across differences.
Project Purpose
Objectives:
- Develop and implement a comprehensive wellbeing and resilience initiative that supports faculty and staff across all levels of the university. This will promote a thriving campus culture characterized by care, well-being, and academic success to achieve unsurpassed societal impact
- Understand and improve the well-being of the people who live, learn, work, and play on our campus and in the communities we serve
- Enhance the capacities of the university community to be resilient in the face of unanticipated economic, social, and ecological threats
Importance:
- There has been a cascade of change, crises, and traumas over the past decade. Periods of significant turbulence and uncertainty lead to doubt and a perceived lack of control.
- There is a business case and a moral imperative to collectively heal and foster recovery and growth, which is difficult in the face of ongoing turbulence.
- We want to help our campus community move forward together through crises and change.
Focus:
- The Well-being and Resilience Task Force is dedicated to addressing the complex and evolving challenges impacting faculty and staff well-being on the main campus. By supporting our faculty and staff, we strengthen the well-being of our students and the broader campus community.
- The committee’s role is to: define the core issues affecting well-being in the employees (faculty and staff); articulate guiding principles for a sustainable, comprehensive, and inclusive approach; and set concrete goals to guide the development of subsequent strategic and implementation plans for the initiative.