UELO: Students will develop skills to maintain mental and physical wellness.
When asked what exactly was meant by this, the responses included positive coping in times of stress, conflict management, developing positive relationships, physical activity, nutrition, and financial literacy.
There were numerous suggestions for how the content could be delivered:
- First Year Seminar in the Major (FYSM) is a one-credit course that already exists, but because it is optional, not all majors actually schedule them. Those that do usually have a faculty member and ACE adviser team up for the course, which provides practical advice for how to succeed in the major. We could require this course for all students, and require that time be set aside for issues of mental and physical wellness. Consistency across all sections would be important.
- Create a new three-credit course that also satisfies the “writing intensive” objective.
- Courses within the majors that satisfy some aspect of this outcome (e.g. course on environmental policy that has the physical activity of hiking through Wild Basin or course on sexual predators that has the physical activity of self-defense training).
- If the plan to have all freshmen participate in LLCs comes to fruition, then deliver the content through them.
- Delivering this outcome completely through co-curricular activities, which would be designated. Students would choose which of these to complete and provide appropriate documentation for advisers. It was suggested that we look at the system that Pitt has in place.
If we stress physical activities, we need to be aware of the time and space limitations on campus.
Should the outcome be a requirement?