| Initiatives | Goal | Means of Achieving | Outcome | Methods of Assessment | Results | Result Use |
| Community | Encourage COVID-19 vaccination within our campus community. | • Work with the ACHA/CDC’s CoVAC initiative for funding and guidance on best-practice strategies.
• Work with SA Marketing to develop a comprehensive marketing campaign to address vaccine hesitancy.
• Conduct regular, in-person, peer-led educational opportunities to encourage and incentivize vaccination while dispelling myths and misinformation.
• Train additional students in addressing vaccine hesitancy with their peers, as needed.
• Work with SA marketing to create a landing page for accurate information on the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Work with other offices across campus to ensure integration and collaboration with other COVID-19 efforts.
| Students will have an increased confidence in the safety and efficacy of available COVID-19 Vaccines.
Weber State University will be a leader in addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and will aid in developing strategies for other Universities.
| • Headcounts from events and activities
• Social media engagement
• Number of students trained as peer ambassadors
| Special funding to address vaccine hesitancy was made available from the American College Health Association (ACHA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through their CoVAC initiative. Awarded schools received mini-grant funding to develop model educational initiatives to improve vaccine compliance on their respective campuses. Student Wellness (SW) applied for, and received, a total of $3000. All of these funds were earmarked for fall semester. As such, we also applied for and were awarded with special HEERF funds to support the continuation of this project into spring semester.
We worked closely with SA Marketing to design campaign materials. This included “Protect the Flock” t-shirts and vinyl stickers featuring WSU’s iconic geese flying over Belltower Plaza with the Wasatch Mountains in the background. 290 shirts were distributed via tabling events in the Union building. 2,000 stickers were ordered, with many still available for use into AY 22-23. An additional campaign was developed to encourage questions and promote a non-judgmental resource. “Concerned about COVID” materials were posted around campus via posters, digital ads, computer lab screensavers, signpost ads, shuttle ads and A-frame posters.
SW hosted 7 outreach tabling events in the union building during November and December. These events gave students a chance to ask the experts the questions or concerns that they had about COVID-19 and/or the COVID-19 vaccine. At this time, we also encouraged students to get vaccinated as WSU would require a vaccination card or exemption form for students to register for classes. SW interacted with 261 students during these tabling events, and also created corresponding social media content.
Social media was an integral component of our CoVAC efforts. 6 posts and 5 stories created for our Instagram account, often centering around frequently asked questions. There were a total of 2,504 “impressions” which broke down to 146 likes, 1 comment, 6 shares, and an increase of 41 followers.
The Student Wellness Coordinator hosted training for CoVAC peer “ambassadors.” Students who were in a position of influence with their fellow students were trained. 22 WSU Resident Assistants from WSU Housing and Residence Life and 26 Peer Mentors were trained to be CoVAC Ambassadors. CoVAC Ambassadors were trained on engaging in emotionally charged and/or controversial conversations to encourage healthy behaviors without increasing resistance. COVID was used as the context for the training, though the skills were not unique to vaccination and may be applicable to other complicated conversations.
Students were required to submit their vaccination status via an emailed form by the beginning of Spring semester. According to this survey, 81% of our students received at least one initial dose. It is unclear how many of these students were considered “fully” vaccinated (i.e. both doses of Pfizer or Moderna and one dose of J&J), or what percentage of students have received booster doses.
| The information and outreach content that was created and implemented for this initiative was a campus-wide effort that was spearheaded by the Student Wellness department. A content page with relevant information, facts, and additional resources that is housed on the SW website will continue to be available to students, as well as the informational posts that were posted on Instagram - The Facebook content was the same that was posted on Instagram, but our Facebook account was flagged and furthermore deactivated. This content is ever evolving and the SW department will continue to provide outreach as deemed necessary. |
| Access | Identify opportunities for programming and events to coexist in-person and virtually. | Identify means to offer in-person programs which we can replicate virtually to better serve our student body.
• Utilize social media channels to publish in-person programs on Instagram and Facebook.
• Offer both virtual and in-person meetings for students when appropriate i.e ASAP, Wellness
Assessments, and Wellness Rewards.
| Students will have constant and consistent access to Wellness programming, regardless of their attendance method. | • Number and types of programs created.
• Social media analytics through views and impressions.
• Student engagement through follows, comments, and participation.
| During AY ‘21-’22, the Student Wellness department either hosted or participated in a total of 25 programs; 1 of which was virtual on Instagram Live called "A Night On Nutrition," 1 grant-funded semester-long program for the CoVAC Initiative aimed at educating students about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine, 1 semester-long general SW booth, 8 that were student-intern led to partially fulfill their internship requirements, 2 Stress-Relief Star Shows that we partnered with the Ott Planetarium, 2 Finals Survival kit hand-outs that we partnered with other SA departments and WSU Davis, 1 Finals Survival Guide Bowling Night, and the remainder being those that were hosted by other departments in which we attended and hosted a wellness-related booth and activity.
Social media again proved to be a useful tool for our office and the students that we serve. In total, the Weber State University Student Wellness Instagram account had 45,973 views/impressions during Fall ‘21 and Spring ‘22 semesters which has increased dramatically since our last report. This breaks down as follows: Fall: 17,065 and Spring: 28,908. Impressions are the number of times that students or viewers have at least seen and/or shared our Instagram posts, stories, videos, and live videos. Impressions also include analytics such as likes, comments, and saves, but the viewer would have to have seen our content in order to be counted towards our impression total.
When Fall ‘21 semester started, the SW Instagram account had 673 followers and the SW Facebook had 53 followers. As of the final day of Spring ‘22 semester, the SW Instagram account had 857 followers for an increase of +184 followers. The SW Instagram posts and story replies totaled to 45.
| Moving forward, the Student Wellness department will continue to seek opportunities to offer hybrid programming. It was evident that in-person programming was more sought after than virtual, but there is still a group of students that virtual programming can and will benefit, so we will not rule that out. As our social media engagement continues to grow, we will continue to post on Instagram regularly with a hybrid of posts and stories. On many occasions, our posts and stories were either saved by the viewer or shared with someone else - This is a good thing! Additionally, Finals Survival Guide is continuing to grow and if the budget permits, we will continue hosting Finals Survival Guide Bowling night the week before finals. Students seemed to appreciate having fun and taking a break from studying before their exams ramped up. |
| Diversity | Enhance campus support for students living in recovery from substance use disorders. | • Form a campus coalition of stakeholders to address substance abuse prevention & recovery; work with coalition to identify needs and opportunities
• Assist with planning and implementation efforts related to Opiate Awareness Week; engage stakeholders to continue efforts beyond
• Work with Intermountain Healthcare and Utah Naloxone to provide Naloxone training to Resident Advisers
• Create a comprehensive web-based resource guide to connect the campus community to recovery resources
• Provide resources and information about recovery at existing, relevant campus events
• Ensure that all efforts are inclusive and sensitive to the needs of disparate populations, particularly trans students
| Students who are living in recovery will find the resources and support they need to persist in their academic progress. | • Coalition membership
• Number and type of events, activities and programs
• Development of webpage and relevant analytics
• Feedback from Resident Advisers on Naloxone training
| Student Wellness participated in the planning process for this year’s Opioid Awareness Week, sponsored by College of Health Professions and held from October 25th to October 29th, 2021. A variety of events were held, including a resource fair, a lecture series from the Neurobehavioral program, and a Naloxone training from Utah Naloxone for the campus community.
Student Wellness also worked with Intermountain Healthcare, who directed us to Utah Naloxone, to train all Resident Assistants (31, total) on Naloxone administration on September 21, 2021. We were not able to provide all attendees with a Naloxone kit, as we normally would, due to a shortage of the medication. As an alternative, we worked with Housing staff to identify locations where a kit could be strategically stored in the event of an emergency. All Resident Assistants were notified of these locations.
Rochelle attended the SAFE Project 2021 Collegiate Recovery Summer Series, an 8-week virtual program for university personnel who want to improve recovery support services and capacity on campus. This was a competitive application, with a cohort-based curriculum and ongoing technical support from the SAFE program. This series allowed us to identify our barriers and opportunities to provide recovery support to our students.
According to our 2021 ACHA-NCHA data, we know that 4.8% of our student body indicated that they were in recovery from alcohol or other drug use, which is higher than their peers in the state of Utah and in the US, at 4.2% and 2.2% respectively. In addition, 16.7% of our trans/gender non-conforming students identified as being in recovery, which is significantly higher than their cis-gender peers. While there is clearly a need for recovery support services on our campus, we have not yet identified the best format for that to be delivered. At this time, there are significant barriers (lack of dedicated/neutral, private space; commuter campus; non-traditional population, etc.) to providing in-person support groups, which is the most common format on college campuses. As an alternative, we are working to build a comprehensive web-based resource guide to connect the campus community to recovery resources that already exist. This will allow us to individualize support resources to the individual, without requiring travel to campus to access resources, while simultaneously assessing interest and feasibility of on-campus support services.
Finally, a foundational group has been established to begin working on substance abuse prevention and recovery. This group’s membership is pulled from members of the JED Team and from the Opioid Awareness Week planning group and includes individuals with a particular passion for the topic who are invested in seeing advancements on campus. We fully anticipate the group to expand once we’re able to gain a bit more traction.
| Student Wellness will continue to pursue the construction of a comprehensive, web-based resource guide for students who are in recovery from drugs or alcohol. We will also continue to explore solutions to bring in-person recovery support to campus.
Recovery will continue to be a key component of the JED Campus Initiative/Mental Health Strategic Plan. The Opioid Awareness Week activities also provide us with fantastic networking opportunities to build relationships around the issue. This will allow us to build momentum for a sustainable campus coalition to address student substance abuse concerns when we eventually transition into being a JED Alumni Campus.
We will also continue to look for opportunities for additional Naloxone/Narcan trainings and work with Utah Naloxone to make them happen. |