Health & Wellness:

A Holistic Approach

Thank you for your interest in learning more about Vassar’s Health & Wellness program. The College aspires to be a campus that promotes healthy habits for its students while providing much-needed support to the staff who work tirelessly to help them. Meeting this goal requires a whole-campus approach.

 

Creating a safe, health-promoting, and understanding environment for our students is of the utmost importance.
Why Now?
Young adults today experience unprecedented rates of anxiety, depression, chronic illness, and more. They’re aware that their health is holistic and influenced not only by access to medical care, but by social, economic, and environmental determinants including a sense of belonging, exercise, as well as physical and mental health care.
A group of students sitting on a blanket near a tree on a sunny day with food and drink smile at the viewer, with many other students visible on the lawn behind and around them.
A group of students sitting on a blanket near a tree on a sunny day with food and drink smile at the viewer, with many other students visible on the lawn behind and around them.

FOCUS AREAS

 

SUPPORTING FUNDS

 

By establishing a Health & Wellness Fund as well as an Emergency Health Fund, more students will be provided with access to health-related services without financial worries. The Health & Wellness Fund, overseen by the Office of the Dean of the College, would fund student-led and Health Promotion and Education (HPE) sponsored group activities such as workshops on mindfulness, restorative practices, having difficult conversations, healthy and affordable cooking strategies, and more.

 

The Emergency Health Fund will put student care first, covering costs for ambulance and emergency room fees, prescriptions, co-pays, transportation to specialists, etc. The fund will also bring local intensive outpatient (IOP) mental health providers to campus several times a week, minimizing scheduling and geography burdens placed on our students when considering IOP options. This also provides more manageable caseloads for our in-house counseling staff, preventing significant burnout.

 

These funds will significantly reduce the stress that many of our high financial needs students cite as a primary reason for not accessing care while at Vassar.

 

UPGRADING & RELOCATING HEALTH SERVICES

 

Health Services must be easily accessed on foot from the College’s residential areas while also maintaining ambulance access and giving the department the much-needed space a contemporary college health center requires.

 

The modernized space will include:

  • numerous exam rooms;
  • isolation areas;
  • classrooms;
  • storage areas for medical supplies;
  • a reception area;
  • adding an elevator and other necessary infrastructure upgrades.

 

BRINGING WELLNESS TO THE RESIDENTIAL HOUSES

 

Students will greatly benefit from areas devoted to wellness in their residential houses. The Residential Life Team, in partnership with faculty House Fellows, will develop spaces within the houses for students to gather for wellness activities, general mental health breaks, and, with the help of Athletics, exercise. These spaces could include dedicated mediation rooms, private rooms for remote therapy sessions, and exercise spaces with bikes, rowers, or at-home weight systems.

 

Enhancing the Vassar College Counseling Services (VCCS) Interior Space

 

The VCCS offers a variety of free and confidential services to students including counseling; a walk-in clinic, crisis intervention, and more. While its current location is sufficient, its interior needs upgrades including rearranging the space to allow for private areas for students to connect with their therapists remotely, updating rooms to fit them for IOP services, new furniture, improved lighting, and art to make the space as comfortable as possible.

A student lies on their back on grass in the sunshine balancing another student diagonally above them with their upraised feet and hands, with a large red brick building in the background.
A student lies on their back on grass in the sunshine balancing another student diagonally above them with their upraised feet and hands, with a large red brick building in the background.
What is the Impact?
By not only upgrading the College’s mental and physical health facilities but also expanding its educational opportunities students will have more avenues to prioritize their health and wellness as they progress through their studies at the College. These upgrades and opportunities will also allow faculty, staff, and administrators to continue to meet the evolving health and wellness needs of our students through innovative programming and our whole-campus approach.
“The national climate and mood has shifted around the importance of mental health and well-being. Thankfully, at Vassar, we have spent the last five years thinking about how to support the wellness needs of our students using a holistic approach. When our students are well in mind, body, and spirit they are their best selves and are better prepared to be a part of the transformative learning that happens in our classrooms and community.”

 

—Carlos Alamo, Dean of the College

For further information, contact Eric Watson at erwatson@vassar.edu or (845) 437-5414.