Stanford has been “Finding Balance and Happiness” this week during the ASSU Wellness Week 2010 campaign. Stanford students enjoyed a variety of study breaks, lectures and free yoga between midterms, internship applications and spring break planning. This group collaboration–orchestrated by various groups ranging from the Bridge Peer Counseling Center to STAMP (Stanford Theater Activist Mobilization Project)–really helped to bring some needed stress relief to campus at a busy time in the quarter. While these opportunities were definitely welcomed, a broader campaign is necessary to affect greater Wellness promotion on campus throughout the year. The Editorial Board applauds the ASSU for putting Wellness Week on, but would urge a re-evaluation of the Week’s structure.

One of the logistical difficulties of the Week’s plan is that it requires students to actively seek out the events. Integrating dorm staff and programming into the planning of the events could provide additional access to students who may not want or be able to attend events across campus. Flyering dorms can provide a laugh here and there, but involving dorms in the effort would amplify the results of the week as well as broaden the scope of students participating in such activities.

The Week allows student engagement with the various organizations that helped put the activities together, but does not do enough to educate and orient students to the facilities available. Creating a safe space in the Bridge is definitely an instance where students could enter a space that may have a negative stereotype on campus and familiarize themselves with the center’s resources. Wellness Week has highlighted the lack of general education on the psychological counseling services and support groups available at Stanford. Yes, it is the burden of the student to seek out these services and they are voluntary, but the negative connotation of “counseling” or stereotype of seeking help must be combated if these centers are truly going to benefit the campus. The blame for under-use of facilities cannot be the burden of only the students undergoing mental duress–an outreach effort to endorse and mitigate negative images of such centers would truly serve the student population well.

One dose of wellness is a start, but is not truly enough to sustain a real impact against Stanford’s mental health. It may be cliché, but the old adage of “if you give a man a fish, you will feed him that day; if you teach him to fish, he will be fed for a lifetime,” truly encapsulates what campus wellness efforts need to initiate. An engagement of the organizing groups with dorm programming and throughout-the-year outreach to students will truly change how we find balance and happiness while at Stanford. The ASSU has definitely laid a foundation for what wellness outreach can look like at Stanford, and hopefully more comprehensive outreach will follow in the future.