Task force releases second report

The University's Task Force on Health and Well-Being released its second report Friday, noting "the importance of better communication" to inform students about the resources available to them.

The 24-page report, which presented additional findings and identified the committee's summer agenda, also recommended "greater synergy in addressing issues that cross office or departmental boundaries."

The new document builds on a January report, which provided background information, some initial findings and recommendations and outlined a work plan for the spring.

The task force's "most ambitious undertaking" this spring, according to the report, has been a series of focus group discussions with undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty, staff and retirees. Based on the discussions, the task force plans to conduct a Web-based survey of all those groups later this week.

The undergraduate focus groups emphasized "expanding and improving mental health services, dental care and access to fitness facilities, and the importance of addressing issues related to stress reduction and nutrition." They were also interested in an integrated health-wellness-fitness center.

Graduate students and staff both expressed concerns about over-centralizing fitness and wellness programs. For example, the graduate student groups suggested incorporating fitness facilities into graduate housing.

Stress was the staff groups' most pressing health concern and the faculty groups ranked parking as "one of the most vexing quality of life concerns on campus." The report also investigated improving nutrition in the food offered by Dining Services.

In addition to the focus groups, the task force surveyed Dillon Gym users in late February and hired an outside company, Bright Horizons, to assess childcare needs. In late January, the task force sent a group of students and staff to the University of California at Berkeley and to Stanford University to study how those institutions approach health and wellbeing.

The task force noted a high level of community interest in its work, fueled partly by concerns that the current health system is inadequate.

"There seems to be wide recognition that both University Health Services . . . and Dillon gym are straining at the seams and that this will only increase when the University adds additional students," the report said.

Although the University has already acted on some of the task force's recommendations, some changes will not be made until after the task force issues its final report, probably in late October or early November, according to Robert Durkee '69, vice president and secretary of the University and co-chair of the task force.

The U-Council will review the new report at its meeting Monday, Durkee added, as part of the task force's effort to listen to input from the University community.