At Simon Frasier University, students’ well-being is a key focus of retention efforts. In the latest issue of SEMQ, health promotion specialists Alisa Stanton, Tara Black, Rosie Dhaliwal and Crystal Hutchinson discuss how universities can develop partnerships to enhance well-being by connecting health promotion and retention research.
“Given that both health promotion and student retention theories are focused on creating supportive institutional environments within higher education settings, there is an important opportunity to explore whether efforts can be combined in order to co-create campus conditions that positively contribute to both student well-being and retention,” the authors wrote. “This will require intentional and strategic partnership building across academic and student affairs, in order to work collaboratively and systemically to enhance institutional environments.”
In 2012, SFU began the “Well-being in Learning Environments Project,” a partnership between the Teaching and Learning Center and Health Promotion that worked with faculty, students and staff to create conditions for well-being within learning environments. This approach led to the co-development of 10 conditions that “align with well-being literature as well as faculty and institutional priorities related to student success and learning,” wrote Stanton and her co-authors.
“By identifying factors within the institutional environment that can support both well-being and success, there is an opportunity to work collectively to create campus environments that will benefit both students and institutions to thrive.”
More than 100 faculty members across all academic units are now involved with the project, and examples of their contributions can be found at SFU’s Healthy Campus Community website.
“The partnerships and collaborative action that make up the project did not occur by chance,” the authors emphasized, but “were rather intentionally fostered and developed through meaningful relationship building with stakeholders, an iterative feedback cycle, and the sharing of positive successes.”
Other articles in SEMQ 4:4 include:
- “SEM and the Student Journey: The Role of Strategic Enrollment Management in Student Engagement” by Stanley E. Henderson;
- “The Seamless Integration of Predictive Analytics and CRM within an Undergraduate Admissions Recruitment and Marketing Plan” by Randall Langston and David Loreto; and
- “Using Emotional Intelligence to Drive Enrollment Performance An Integrative Review of the Literature” by Mardell Maxwell.
For more information or to submit an article, contact Managing Editor Heather Zimar at heatherz@aacrao.org