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At a recent faculty meeting, the registrar proposed a policy change with the aim of better supporting student well-being and mental health. The policy on the agenda was credit/no credit. The request: Approve a change in policy that would automatically result in students receiving no credit for a course in which a failing grade was earned. Such a policy would no longer require students to complete the needed paperwork by a given deadline, and would prevent a decline in students’ GPA. After a brief discussion, the faculty body agreed that such a change would be beneficial to students and help support students’ well-being and mental health.

Immediately following the vote, a faculty colleague raised her hand and asked, “Who is focused on my well-being? What policy changes are we making that are focused on improving faculty and staff well-being and mental health?”

The above scenario highlights the continued, and necessary, efforts of institutional leaders, faculty and staff to create environments in which student well-being and mental health are core priorities. A recent Healthy Minds study found that 38 percent of students surveyed reported experiencing depression and 34 percent experienced generalized anxiety, while 50 percent reported a diagnosis of mental illness at some point in their lifetimes. And while only 4 percent reported seeking informal support for their mental health from a faculty member, we know anecdotally that faculty believe they are more frequently expected to support a student’s mental health than in the past.

Yet, the above scenario also reminds those of us in the academy that far fewer institutional efforts are aimed at faculty and staff well-being and mental health beyond health-focused programs that require faculty and staff to opt in. We seek to contribute to recent conversations in which faculty and staff burnout, well-being and mental health are recognized by highlighting the role of higher ed leaders in advancing institution-level efforts aimed at supporting faculty and staff well-being and mental health, and issue a call to action to institutional leaders to invest in faculty and staff wellness efforts.

Well-Being Initiatives in Higher Education

Some institutions have launched promising initiatives in this area. At Georgia Institute of Technology, for example, “cultivate well-being” is one of six strategic focus areas in the 2020–2030 plan, which includes two road maps, one for students’ well-being and one for faculty and staff. The aim is to “strengthen our culture of well-being and create an environment of holistic learning where all members of our community can grow and learn to lead healthy, purposeful, impactful lives.”

The road map for faculty and staff was launched in fall 2023, so the institution is in the early stages of working toward its four organizing goals: catalyzing cultural change around wellness, building capacity and creativity around prevention and holistic well-being, enhancing community and connection, and strengthening commitment and ensuring continuity for well-being efforts beyond the strategic plan years. Though the work is just beginning, it already goes beyond standard HR approaches (such as wellness emails) to try to understand the unique situations of faculty and staff and better create opportunities to improve holistic wellness in a variety of ways.

Another promising example comes from the College of Arts and Sciences at Gonzaga University, where the Office of the Dean organized a variety of events in response to a desire among faculty to build more community and attention to well-being. For example, they held well-being social events that allowed faculty to gather and engage in a sense of fun and play with each other through adult coloring books, origami paper, bracelet making and games with the goal of allowing faculty to connect on a personal level. Faculty who attended appreciated the opportunity to learn about their colleagues outside of the usual contexts for interaction.

The office also sponsored college-level community wellness events, such as having a dance professor lead a movement and breathing activity. On another occasion, they did a mindfulness walk together in the natural setting around campus. And finally, the office supports a weekly 30-minute contemplative meditation session drawing from Cole Arthur Riley’s Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human. Jonathan Rossing, associate dean of faculty affairs in the college, shared that the contemplative meditation sessions have been the most successful and that, while reception of the other activities was mixed, they continue to try different opportunities to engage faculty in building community and wellness.

A Call to Action: Investing in Wellness on Your Campus

Our hope in sharing these examples is to provide evidence of institutional efforts that explicitly invest in faculty and staff well-being in meaningful ways. Further, these examples illustrate that investments can, and should, be made across varied institutional levels to advance real transformational change. Inspired by the examples shared, we propose a call to action for those institutional leaders interested in more intentionally investing in the well-being of their faculty and staff.

  1. Ensure diverse campus stakeholders have well-being as part of their work portfolio of responsibilities, because well-being is core to the success of all faculty and staff members and, therefore, the students we work with. Require those stakeholders to outline explicit key performance indicators, with corresponding evidence, to illustrate progress made and intended actions to advance related initiatives.
  2. Collect related data about faculty and staff burnout and communicate findings on a scheduled basis (e.g., quarterly), outlining short-, medium- and long-term action plans to act on knowledge gleaned. We pay attention to what we assess, so having actionable plans and metrics for the assessment of those plans guarantees more attention will be paid to wellness and well-being issues on campus.
  3. Provide tools and resources for those tasked with supporting their departmental and/or unit colleagues. For example, provide department chairs with training on how to identify burnout symptoms and have compassionate conversations with peers about mental health issues, as well as ideas and support for activities they can use to build positive community in the department.

While there is much work to be done to address faculty and staff well-being across the academy, we are inspired by institutional leaders who recognize and prioritize faculty and staff well-being as the foundation for institutional success. In her welcome address to faculty last fall, Isis Artze-Vega, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Valencia College, presented one academic priority for the 2024–25 academic year: “Supporting faculty members’ full humanity as they prioritize their own well-being alongside that of their students.” As members of the academy work to create inclusive learning environments that recognize the whole person, we must ensure faculty, staff and students are able to engage in those spaces fully. To achieve this, well-being must be the priority.

Vicki L. Baker is the E. Maynard Aris Endowed Professor in Economics and Management, associate dean of strategic partnerships and innovation, and chair of the economics and management department at Albion College. She is also a co-founder of Lead Mentor Develop, an academic career and professional development consulting group that helps businesses, nonprofits and higher education institutions in the areas of mentoring, faculty development and leadership.

Rebecca Pope-Ruark is the director of the Office of Faculty Professional Development at Georgia Institute of Technology. She is the host of the agile academic podcast for women in higher ed, and her book Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal (2022) is available from Johns Hopkins University Press.

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