Bemidji State University has begun a broad-reaching student wellness initiative, The Best You @ BSU, which aims to align a student’s college experience with six dimensions of personal wellness. As part of the initiative, BSU’s Gillett Recreation-Fitness Center has been renamed as the northern end of BSU’s campus continues its transformation into a hub for student services and wellness-related activities.

The Best You @ BSU brings together programming and initiatives currently being done by the newly named Gillett Wellness Center, the Department of Housing and Residence Life, the Hobson Memorial Union, the Student Center for Health and Counseling and other student services and refocuses them around six dimensions of wellness – career, environmental, emotional, physical, spiritual and social.

Dr. Mary Ward, BSU’s interim dean of student success, says the initiative will help students understand that residential learning and life on campus is not just about having a place to live, but having access to a community of services and programming to support them.

“Students can look at the north end of campus with the wellness center, Housing and Residence Life, the Student Center for Health and Counseling and the services available in Decker Hall, and they’ll know this is where they can have their needs met in a holistic way,” she said.

The Best You @ BSU program will launch for students during Orientation week prior to the Fall 2016 semester. During its first year, the program will focus on first-year students and their families and slowly grow to include all students.

BSU began presenting the Best You @ BSU initiative to incoming freshmen during Academic Advising and Registration days held this spring and summer. Later this summer, students will receive a wellness self-assessment that will help them identify areas where they might wish to improve, and provide help in finding services to support them in those areas. When those students arrive on campus this fall, they will find that programming in a variety of offices across campus is already aligning with the wellness dimensions. For example:

• The 18-person committee which has worked on the Best You @ BSU initiative will partner with the university’s Living Well, Working Well committee, which works on wellness initiatives for faculty and staff, on a variety of programs and initiatives.
• Community assistants in Housing and Residence Life are being prepared to do wellness planning with the university’s resident students, similar to academic planning already being done. These planning resources will be available through the student union for non-resident students.
• BSU’s food service provider, ARAMARK, will have a certified dietician on staff to help students have access to more information about dietary choices.

“We want to show students how this all fits together in their lives going forward,” Ward said. “For us, this program is about retention and persistence, and it supports an ethic of care. Everyone deserves an opportunity to succeed, and success extends beyond the academic arena.”

Contact

• Dr. Mary Ward, interim dean of student success; (218) 755-, mward@bemidjistate.edu

Bemidji State University, located in northern Minnesota’s lake district, occupies a wooded campus along the shore of Lake Bemidji. Enrolling nearly 5,000 students, Bemidji State offers more than 80 undergraduate majors and 11 graduate degrees encompassing arts, sciences and select professional programs. BSU is a member of the Minnesota State system of colleges and universities and has a faculty and staff of more than 550. University signature themes include environmental stewardship, civic engagement and global and multi-cultural understanding.

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