For the first time, the University of Iowa included “holistic well-being” as a goal in its strategic plan. It is a remarkable move for a campus to elevate holistic well-being as part of its strategic plan. Well-being has typically been framed as campus services and less typically as part of how the campus designs and defines itself. While the University of Iowa is pursuing this strategic goal, it is not the only university and college doing so.

The international health-promoting campus movement began nearly 10 years ago with a call for campuses to “embed health into all aspects of campus culture and to lead health promotion action and collaboration locally and globally.” The grounding document for this movement is the Okanagan Charter which holds as its central tenet that “health-promoting universities and colleges transform the health and sustainability of our current and future societies, strengthen communities, and contribute to the well-being of people, places, and the planet.”

Within the ongoing challenges of the greater world in which higher education exists, campuses are addressing more now than ever the increasing needs, concerns, and demands for well-being for all campus members as well as for the environment in which the campus exists.

There are currently 231 campus members of the U.S. Health Promoting Campus Network with other networks across the globe. In the state of Iowa, Grinnell College, Iowa State University, and the University of Iowa have formally signed onto the Okanagan Charter. By signing on, these Iowa campuses agree to follow the Okanagan Charter as a foundational tool to guide their campus well-being transformations. Being a health-promoting campus signals a campus’ desire to move away from an individualistic-only world view.

Health-promoting campuses focus on interconnectedness between campus members and the environment in which the campus exists. As such, intervention is not only at the individual level but is also at the systems level. A critical factor for health-promoting campuses is the attention paid to larger systems in which the more typical services, programs, and initiatives operate. Health-promoting campuses attend to such things as policies and procedures that govern autonomy and freedom regarding access to services. 

For example, having control over one’s time during the workday to step away from one’s workplace to attend a campus-sponsored seminar on well-being or having access to services outside of typical work hours if one works second or third shift on campus. In its efforts to address system-level issues, health-promoting campuses seek to address systemic factors that create or contribute to oppression, discrimination, and inequity.

A valuable deconstruction of the current campus mental health narrative that exists within the health-promoting campus paradigm focuses on “decentering mental health.” For many years, mental health has been the primary focus for campuses. Mental health was and continues to be seen as “the problem.” Health-promoting campuses decenter mental health as the problem. Instead, health-promoting campuses focus on well-being where mental health concerns are more so framed as an outcome of when other aspects of well-being languish. By broadening out to see the whole person and the many facets that impact well-being, mental health becomes one of many factors, which includes the larger campus environment and operating systems.

Intrigued? Interested? The good news is that at the 2023 Iowa Best Summit, representatives from Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa spoke on their efforts towards becoming health-promoting campuses. Within our state, then, are colleagues with expertise in assisting campuses in becoming health-promoting. Want to find out more for your campus? Use this link to read about the Okanagan Charter and how to begin your pathway toward becoming a health-promoting campus.